Born With Red Eyes
by Killer Intent
Summary: The story of Naruto, his peers, and the after-effects of his abduction from Konoha by Orochimaru, a murderous villain who holds no value for life. Ino's visit with an ancient ancestor leaves her changed, for better or for worse. The two are fated to meet again, this time in the heart of the land of fire, drawn together by the prophetic dreams of the Daimyo's mysterious nephew.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Author: **Hi everyone. I added a note about some of the oddities in this story compared to the manga at the bottom of the chapter.

I hope you are able to enjoy the story regardless of any changes to the original story, it is fan fiction after all, and I just wanted to say thanks!

**Update: **03/24/12 I changed a continuity issue regarding Sasuke between the 1st and 3rd chapters, although it's no big deal really.

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><p>A boy stood behind an iron balustrade on the fourth floor of the apartment complex, gazing at the stylized faces on the mountain of great men from the past. His eyes settled on the visage of the fourth man, wondering if somehow that more than just the image of the greats was carved into the mountain; his train of thought continued on to ask, even if no one was listening, was it possible that somehow their souls were anchored in as well, holding steadfast, watching over everyone as an ultimate resolution and duty to their people?<p>

Below him, through the spaces in the barrier on the high terrace he could spy the buzzing movements of people in the distance. His arms, which were covered by the sleeves of his orange flavored jacket, came to rest on the railing in front of him. He leaned forward, looking straight down to the pedestrians below. He looked around carelessly, aimlessly as he searched through the crowd as if he would see something of interest; perhaps a familiar face would smile and wave?

Seeing nothing of the sort, his eyes veer back up to meet the blank stares of the faces on the mountain. They were the Hokages, each of them a leader who shouldered the responsibility of an entire village's safety, concerns, and dreams. Each carried the torch for such a short time, except the third. The third was the only one of the four still living, meaning that the fourth Hokage, whose surname was Namikaze and who had succeeded the third at one point, was now deceased.

Naruto, the boy with the orange jacket leaning over the railing and deep cobalt eyes, knew the old man well. He was nice, caring and always looked out for him. Deep down, other than the stories of the fourth, or Yondaime, Hokage, he knew that the reason why he dreamed of being the leader of the village one day was because of old Sarutobi.

He absent-mindedly let his eyes fall back to the ground below when striking blue eyes caught and ensnared him. They were cornflower blue with a lime tint in their center. What struck him the most was that she didn't seem to have any pupils. Instead, she had only two large irises with no black hole in the epicenter, with only the slightest discoloration.

Now, normally it was hard for someone to make out a person's eye color from four floors up; however, in Naruto's case, he was actually no longer standing on the fourth floor. After catching her bright gaze for a brief moment in which afterward she merely continued walking, he took hold of the rail and grasped at the iron bars as he let his lower body hang off of the edge of the balcony to drop down to the third floor. He quickly did the same to land on the second and immediately afterward he climbed up onto the molding of the side of the building at the base of the windows for that floor so that he could walk alongside her on the second floor.

His attention didn't go unnoticed. Walking alongside her father, she caught his wild blond hair in the corner of her eye as they neared a small ramen stand. Before stepping underneath the bright red words on white banner, her father turned to look at her as he noticed that she stopped to take a look at something up above their heads. "Ino, is there something the matter, pumpkin?"

Ino frowned and glared at her father, who smiled nervously at the look that she must have inherited from her mother.

"Daddy! I'm too big for you to call me pumpkin anymore, will you please stop! My name is Ino! I-no!" Her squeals didn't go unnoticed by the blond crouched up on the second floor, looking down.

Ino pushed her father in, forgetting the young boy on the rooftop for the time being. Or trying to. She couldn't believe that he would just hop down like that to follow her.

_He must be a ninja, _she thought, smiling as she was reminded that she had been accepted into the academy recently. _He's so cool! I can't wait for my first day at the academy!_

And with that, she ordered her ramen and enjoyed a warm bowl together with her father.

Naruto, who was still standing on the roof, was trying to decide if he should go in there after her and introduce himself or just walk along. He frowned, and squinted with his eyes as he tried to think, making the action seem more painful than it actually was.

Taking a deep breath to muster his courage, he dropped down from the side of the building and walked up to the stand with barstool seats and a big man in a white hat and apron with strong arms who cooked the noodles.

"Naruto!"

Naruto flinched. He turned to look in the direction of the violent-sounding scream of his academy teacher. Apparently, the scar-faced chunin Iruka came looking for him after he skipped class.

Turning back to the ramen stand, he saw that both the girl, Ino, and her father, were staring at him, together with the ramen stand owner.

Seeing each other so close, the two smiled at one another and shared a slightly awkward greeting of 'hi' until Naruto looked back toward Iruka and then quickly caught a glance of the blonde girl again before he bolted in the opposite direction.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Yelled Iruka again as he passed by the stand. He looked like he had some rope in his hands, or so Teuchi thought. Ino's father smirked and shook his head as he leaned in close to breathe in the tasty smell of the bowl in front of him. _The kid never changes, _he thought in amusement.

Ino smiled, filing that name away for later. She turned back silently to her ramen and ate it enthusiastically to the stand owner's delight as he exclaimed that he was so glad to have found someone who could enjoy his food the only way it was supposed to be enjoyed. Loudly.

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><p>An aging man leaned calmly in his chair wearing a white robe and holding a pipe that had as much wear on it as he had on him. His eyes were kind, but in them a sense of ferocity beyond easy understanding lay. His confidence that radiated from him did not seem to have a hint of arrogance. On his large wooden table lay some paperwork, a quill and ink jar, some scrolls, and of course, the Hokage's large brimmed hat. "How was your trip.<p>

The man standing before him wore a vest, this one in particular indicating that he was of jounin status, a mask covering the lower portion of his face and a headband with a metal plate hanging over his left eye, giving him a lazy, slightly off appearance. "Honestly? Lousy, a pretty young lady walked by and gave me that type of look, so, you know, I went along and followed her and ended up in a whole mess of trouble."

The Hokage smirked and with a rasping voice encouraged the silver haired man to continue with a knowing, "O-oh?"

"Ah, so you want more to that story… Well, I finished reading Icha Icha for the seventeenth time."

The Hokage shook his head and clasped his hand down over his face. "Right, that book... don't remind me."

"Anyways," he continued, not giving the Hokage a chance to recoup. "I do have an interesting message from Jiraiya."

The Hokage suddenly looked up, smiling fondly at the mention of his old student. "Hah! Jiraiya… that marvelous fool. I truly wish he had never left the village, though I must admit that he remains invaluable to the village... on a different note, is he still writing those novels?" The old man whose tan face already showed red from a blush, inquired.

"Yes, he is. In fact, he's writing a second book that should be coming out within the next few months."

"Ah, wonderful… I suppose," said the Hokage, who made a mental note to watch out for that new book soon. "So, continue, continue! Just what did Jiraiya have to say that was so interesting?"

"He gave me this to give to you as the message." Kakashi said as he reached into his vest to procure a scroll that had a yellow frog hanging from the small intricately woven plum string.

The Hokage stared on expectantly as he watched for what was going to come out of the jounin's vest. But when it was offered to him, he immediately knew what the scroll meant by looking at the small bull frog hanging off the end of the string with its gaping mouth.

"Kakashi, I want you to go to the academy and pick up the young orphan boy, Uzumaki Naruto."

Kakashi, who was keen on reading people could see that the demeanor of the Hokage intensified, as slight as the indications were. Whatever the scroll was, it meant that something drastic was about to happen. _Or maybe it's happening already. _He thought, clenching his jaw tight.

"My lord." Kakashi said briefly, solemnly, for once, before laying the scroll down on the table, backing up and leaving through the large double doors in the Hokage's office to head towards the academy.

The Hokage groaned as he rubbed his temples. "How dire this situation has become… where will he go now that the entire shinobi world has become his enemy?"

The pipe lay on the table, alongside the scroll, forgotten as the Hokage reached into one of the drawers and pulled out a mysterious glass orb that was sitting on top of a lavender cushion that kept it from rolling around. He brought his hands up in front of the orb and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, he could see an image of the blond boy appearing within it.

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><p>After a good twenty minutes of dodging his teacher, Naruto took a seat next to a wooden training post by a small stream that lead to a pond a few steps away from where he was.<p>

As he sat alone against the training post, he noticed a grouping of fire ants floating on the surface of a puddle that had formed on the floor beside him perhaps some time ago. They had gathered into one spot to make a makeshift bridge across the water to transport the goods that the worker ants had collected. He noticed a gap at the end and took a few blades of grass and laid them down where the ants were trying to get to. Once they grabbed a hold of the grass, he let go and watched as they completed the bridge and slowly brought themselves across.

"So staring at ants is more interesting than my lectures, huh?" The voice of his annoying academy teacher came from behind him.

Naruto's head shot up and he was about to jump to his feet, but as he jerked upwards he let out a yelp when he realized he was tied down to the post by a rope that had somehow snaked itself around him and knotted itself firmly without his knowing. Iruka was such a sneaky bastard!

"Iruka-sensei! Ahh-what's up, huh?" The rope around his body kept him from moving, and Naruto had to figure it was some kind of jutsu.

"Oh, nothing's up, Naruto. No... But I've got **plenty** of downers for you once we get back to the classroom. I suggest you make sure to have at least three pencils, you'll be doing homework until you start bleeding from your nails."

Naruto groaned.

"Listen, can I at least grab something to eat, real quick, before we head back? I'm starving!"

Iruka looked at the blond and the serious look that was on his face earlier unscrewed into a loose, amused grin before exploding into full out laughter.

Naruto frowned and whined, "Hey, hey! That's not funny! I'm really hungry!"

Iruka laughed even harder.

"Fine, I guess we can go ahead and…"

When Iruka saw Kakashi drop down in front of them, staring directly at Naruto, he immediately turned to look at the young boy and glared, "**Naruto! **What the hell did you do!"

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><p><strong>TBC<strong>

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><p><strong><em>Several key differences in the story compared to the manga, including Naruto, the origin of the clans, chakra, the Kyubi, and a few other choice things have been made and may bother you.<em>**

**_Try to enjoy the ride either way._**

_Luv,_

_ Mos_


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto sat in the chair before the Hokage. Iruka sat on his left and Kakashi on his right. They all carried a very grim look that made him feel uneasy. If they were worried about something about to happen that didn't look good, then what in hell was he supposed to be able to do about it? In his anxiousness, he spied a clear globe sitting on the Hokage's desk and wondered what sort of crazy shinobi jutsu the Hokage could use with it. It looked like a crystal ball from a story; a magical vessel used to see far into the future.

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

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><p>Kakashi was the first to speak up, ending the silence in the room which was filled with dread. "Is it possible for us to keep him here in the village?"<p>

"How could we possibly protect him outside of it? He should be watched by ANBU around the clock!" Iruka exclaimed, surprising even himself at the outburst.

He bowed his head quickly and said, "I'm sorry, it's not my place to make demands, Hokage-sama."

"It's quite understandable; truthfully, I am pleased to see you take up such a stance for one of your students." He turned then to Naruto and smiled, despite the situation. "You have a very dedicated instructor, Uzumaki, one deserving of much respect, in my humble opinion."

Iruka smiled hesitantly and but Naruto gave an easy nod. He was starting to understand why his teacher was so strict on him all of the time.

"When does Jiraiya arrive?" asked Kakashi who in the brief exchange had pulled out his Icha Icha Paradise novel and started reading it albeit absentmindedly.

The Hokage shook his head and took a puff of his pipe. "My contact only left a few minutes after I was given the scroll."

Kakashi looked up for a second from his book, but then turned back to it and started giggling almost sheepishly. Naruto scowled at the perverted look on the jounin's face and the Hokage smiled through a sigh.

Sarutobi noticed that Iruka looked like he had something to say, so the Hokage asked him to go ahead, "Speak, please Iruka-san. If there is anything on your mind about the situation, I'm all ears for clues to a solution."

Iruka, holding a heavy frown as he looked directly at the Hokage, seemed to search for something. Maybe his words to speak, maybe an answer, or just some approval, and when the Hokage nodded once Iruka sighed and began by saying, "Since you mentioned Jiraiya, perhaps he and Kakashi can escort Naruto under an alias and either genjutsu or maybe an alteration to his actual appearance?"

"I doubt that Jiraiya would agree to this. He said very clearly that it was simply a message, meaning he did not want to have anything to do with it. He knew that sending Naruto off with him would be my first reaction."

Iruka looked dumbfounded. "But, sir… lord… forgive me for saying this, but **you're** the Hokage."

Sarutobi gave the slightest of stern looks and Iruka flinched. "I **am**. Some things, however, are not entirely up to me."

Naruto, all the while, was staring down at the ground, shaking. He could feel his teeth chattering as he tried to imagine how three villages could suddenly be made aware of his existence and he was now mistaken as the heir to one of the most, if not the most, feared and respected Hokages in their history.

The craziest part? Well, it was probably that the confusion that was spread through the other villages could be understandable after a picture of him was sent to each of their Kages with a message explaining his supposed lineage.

"Naruto, do you understand everything that has been said today?" The Hokage asked, causing the young man to look up with his deep blue eyes.

"I don't… I have a lot of enemies now. They may even want to come to the village to kill me, so I might have to run. I can't expect protection from the village at all times and it may be hard to try and convince them that, although I'm blond and I'm at the right age to be his lost son, I actually am not."

"That's right. That is the most important part, that you do not try and use their confusion to trick them. If they caught wind of you claiming to be his son, I have no doubt that your enemies would double simply because the ones who weren't certain would suddenly become very much so."

Kakashi spoke sagely as he read his book, speaking almost as if he were reading directly from it the words and advice that he was giving. "When Kumo, Iwa and Suna see a chance to attack Konoha politically, they take it without hesitation. Not only does this unbelievable idea of Naruto being the Yondaime's son have no foundation to base itself on other than superstitious old shinobi who remember the bad times and the old wars, but were also the fearful who were read scary stories of the Yondaime Hokage and never forgot those old tales, even as full-fledged shinobi, of the yellow flash sneaking into their respective shinobi camps and leaving with the heads of their leaders without anyone even knowing he was there."

Naruto was struck in a stupor. Was the Yondaime really that powerful? Sure, he knew plenty of shinobi who were sneaky, but only a few never got caught. In his opinion, he was pretty good at detecting people sneaking around him and from time to time he even caught some ANBU by surprise.

"Naruto, you might be wondering if the Yondaime and the legends surrounding him share any resemblance. And the fact of the matter is: they do. They most certainly do. He once relayed a bit of advice to me. A small token, I suppose, before he went and died six years ago."

Naruto was already sitting up straight in his chair as he listened diligently to Kakashi, who smirked beneath his navy blue mask.

"The better shinobi, he said, makes one less mistake than the other shinobi. But the best shinobi prepares himself for the mistakes that he will, indeed, make."

The Hokage smiled approvingly, while Iruka stood straighter at his superior's words, clearly impressed.

The Hokage turned to look at Kakashi. "Thank you very much for your clever choice of words, Kakashi-kun. But as far as who will be watching over Naruto here, I don't know what else to do, other than to give him to Danzo."

Iruka grimaced and Kakashi looked dead in the eye of the Hokage, as if trying to make sure he was in the right state of mind when he said that. "Hokage, what makes you think Danzo would even take Naruto?"

Naruto looked up, "Who's Danzo?"

The three of them looked at him quietly and Iruka spoke up, "He is a council member and elite shinobi with very few beyond the Hokage as his equal."

Sarutobi chewed on the spout of his pipe as he turned in his chair, sinking into it.

"Perhaps we should check with Shikaku. He may be able to prepare a strategy for our current predicament." Kakashi offered, still not looking up from his book.

"That sounds like a sound plan, Kakashi." He sat up and nodded. "Until then, I will contact Danzo and see if I can convince him to take Naruto on as his ward. I suspect it won't be very difficult." said the Hokage. He looked to Naruto and addressed him as such, "Naruto-kun. I suspect you will have to go through quite a bit of training. What you do from here on out is very important for the village, and not only your own survival, but ours as well depends on your decisions from here on out. I will try and watch over you as much as I can, and I will give you a gift that may aid you someday in the future."

The Hokage then turned to address the other two, "Gentlemen, if you would."

They looked at one another, then bowed and excused themselves from the office immediately after saying their goodbyes to Naruto.

"Naruto. I can't ask this of you, but by the time you have received and used the gift that I am going to bestow upon you, you will come to understand what is necessary not only for your own wellbeing, but also for that of the village as well."

Naruto fidgeted, trying to figure out what the word 'bestow' meant, but figured it had to do something with gift, which means he was going to get something… probably, "What are you going to give me?"

The Hokage nodded and stood up from his chair and walked over to a wall on the left side of the room. He quickly revealed there to be a false wall and expertly removed each of the ten traps that were set to guard the mysterious object.

"I moved it recently due to a failed break-in by one of our very own chunin. I suspect he was interested in its contents for the wrong reasons, and I cannot allow this scroll to fall into the wrong hands."

Naruto felt his pride swell; he was hoping that meant the Hokage had a lot of confidence in him. After reaching his hand into a hole within the false wall and reaching upwards, he seemed to yank down on something and then moved his arm away, revealing there to be a revolving wall within the false one.

When he turned around, he waved Naruto over who quickly stood up from his chair and walked over to him.

When the Hokage took a step back, Naruto saw a very large scroll that was easily over half his size. It looked old, but hardly delicate, and had dark green trim with a light beige center.

"Hokage-sama… what is that?" Naruto asked, dumbfounded at the ridiculously large scroll that looked almost painful to carry.

"That, Naruto, is the Hokage scroll of sealing*. It is a very important scroll that contains nearly every known jutsu known in Konoha and information regarding each of them. Some of the jutsu within are forbidden by the Shodai Hokage for the sake of lower ranked shinobi because of the chakra control and well requirements that can be overwhelming to those who are not prepared."

Naruto's eyes widened, "The Shodai was the one who forbid them? What could I possibly do with any of them? I don't know anything about performing jutsus, much less any that require any kind of chakra control! I can barely do a bunshin…"

The Hokage gave him a stern look, which made the boy waver his stance on the issue. "Naruto, the time is now for you to begin your journey as a shinobi. I have decided to have you study this scroll under Kakashi's tutelage. I wanted to see his reaction first hand at offering you to Danzo, and I was content with what I saw. I simply wanted to make sure I could trust him."

Naruto blinked, furrowing his brow. "It didn't look like he did anything, actually. He just giggled like a girl while he was reading that orange book."

The Hokage chuckled. "You shall also train in the art of reading a person's behavior, body language and written and spoken words."

He gave a disgusted look that made the Hokage laugh again. "It's a necessary evil, I assure you Naruto."

"Oh, Oji-san! Can Iruka help me learn these techniques as well?" Naruto asked, smiling hopefully as he looked at the old man's wise eyes.

"You will continue to go to the academy. I believe that Kakashi is already aware of what his responsibilities will entail for the next couple of years, but I believe with time you will become the shinobi worthy enough to have peered into this sometimes finicky scroll."

Naruto blinked. "Finicky?"

"You'll see," he assured him. He pulled a few seals from his desk and stood up to walk over to him. "Go ahead, pick it up."

Naruto reached over with a bit of excitement in his hands as he fingered the scroll away from the wall and tilted it toward him so it would lean on his shoulder. He used his legs to lift it up and grinned up at the Hokage, who offered a warm smile. "Hold it in your arms." Naruto then did as he was told and brought the large scroll out in front of him to cradle it.

Immediately, the Hokage stamped the seals vertically and horizontally in a conspicuous pattern.

"This is a very large scroll. The seals I just applied to it have made it impossible for you to learn certain jutsu by making them 'unavailable' in the scroll until you have mastered some others. You can start with Iruka after academy hours tomorrow. I will relay the message to him and Kakashi so that your training goes by smoothly."

"Thank you, oji-san." Naruto said with a bright, sunny grin. He was about to hoist the scroll over his shoulder again when he noticed there was a belt he could wear to strap it onto his back. Doing so, he easily carried the scroll and stood up straight before bowing in front of the Hokage.

Before he could leave, the Hokage said, "One last thing Naruto… at some point, I'd like you to go see Yamanaka Inoichi for a mental check up and examination. Perhaps by the end of next month." Obviously it wasn't all that important, since he could probably wait a whole month and a half to go. Naruto put it at the bottom of his short list of to-do's.

"Who's that?" He asked, narrowing his eyes until the Hokage could hardly see them.

"Ah, he's a blond man with a pony-tail and his family owns a nice flower shop near the southern wall. He also has a very charming young daughter named Ino who is about a year younger than you are."

"Ah! Ino?" He asked enthusiastically, remembering the girl's name and quickly shooting the mental examination up near the top of his list. "So her last name is Yamanaka?" His grin widened substantially, "Arigatou, oji-san!" He said and then ran out the door quickly to the surprise of the village leader. With a grin, Sarutobi picked up his pipe and puffed slowly; smoke rings began filling the still air in the large room.

"The scroll and the anger from Iwa likely are the least of my worries." He thought aloud and blew out a puff of smoke that swirled into a spiral like those worn by many of his very own shinobi.

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><p><strong>Author:<strong> Just so you know, I've decided to write shorter chapters so that I could update quickly. I have most of this story already written down, which is why I took so long to update, but I'm constantly checking it and rewriting a few things.

I have removed the first chapter showing what made me think up this story, but I have to warn those of you who have read it that if you can't be patient, then it might be a while before the important points in the plot come around and you may be disappointed thinking I'm going to go straight to the Uchiha and the sharingan-born Hyuga. There are also significant changes in this actual, multi-chaptered story whereas the one-shot will no longer act as a valid summary.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

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><p><strong>Author: <strong>Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing and everything else. Also, thanks for your questions, and I will try to answer them if I can through the story rather than through a note like this.

**Warning: **The ages, backgrounds, and timelines have been turned on their head. I made Naruto a little over a year older than the rest of the rookie 9. Things are not going to turn out completely like the manga nor will they turn out like the anime. I am working on my own story, and will use the characters as I see fit to make it engaging for the audience as an alternate universe fic.

Thanks again for reading!

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><p>Naruto groaned. It was after academy hours and he was given instructions on what to study when he had the time, because in order to understand some of the jutsu from the scrolls he was going to have to get way ahead, and really pick up his slack if he wanted to get strong fast. He stood by a rectangular pond by the side of a hill with a road at the top near the Konoha Military Police Force and their few buildings surrounding it.<p>

He was rubbing his forehead as he tried to understand the difference in the hand seals and how in certain combinations they allowed a shinobi to harness their chakra as a weapon; sometimes the chakra was turned into a flame like the tiger and dragon seals tended to produce, but sometimes the type of seal didn't signify what element or technique was being used, and so the thing as a whole was very confusing to him.

From what he could tell, by listening to Iruka, was that techniques used the seals like the pieces from a rotating shape puzzle that required the right combination in the correct order to solve it. That, however, still wasn't a good enough metaphor for how chakra seals worked; shinobi only become so fast at reproducing these seals, or rotating the pieces in the case of the puzzle, in a particular order and often times it is very difficult to remember a particular pattern for a particularly difficult jutsu.

In other words, someone who was at the genin level would require somewhere between twenty and thirty seals, executed in perfect order and form, and with enough focus into each of them to be able to reproduce a jounin level jutsu.

This of course does not take into account the genin's natural talent, but even that only went so far. This was mostly because, as Iruka mentioned again using another metaphor, the chakra coils were like a muscle. They require strenuous exercise and practice for them to get bigger and stronger, essentially making them more suited to handling chakra-intensive techniques.

And even with strong chakra coils, natural talent or ability, and perfect order and form, if the genin's **comprehension** of how the different seals rotate the pieces of the puzzle is lacking, then they may as well not even bother. So, obviously, a powerful technique required an intimate understanding of one's own chakra system, body, and mind.

Naruto sighed. And then there were the extreme cases of talent shown by some of the great shinobi of the past.

To Naruto, for instance, it still didn't make any sense that the Nidaime Hokage was able to perform a single seal to utilize a jutsu that required nearly fifty different seals from most **jounin, **regardless of skill. Kakashi had told him about that one.

Annoyed, he went through the seals again: Bird, Boar, Dog, Dragon, Ox, Tiger, Serpent, Rat, Horse, Monkey, Hare, and Ram.

"Tori, I, Inu, Tatsu, Ushi, Tora, Mi, Ne, Uma, Saru, U, Hitsuji." Again he repeated them, according to the order that Iruka asked him to perform and memorize them in.

These were only the basic seals, based on various animals, but why he didn't quite know nor did he care to ask. But with these seals it was possible for him to learn most of the techniques in the scroll, according to Kakashi.

_Speaking of which_, he thought, _I haven't seen the masked pervert for a few days now. I guess he's letting Iruka-sensei take care of the basics…_

"Tori, I, Inu…" Naruto began, starting over and repeating the seals over and over again until he accidently jammed his fingers with a yelpwhen he mixed up the hare and the ram symbols near the end of his fifteenth run through them.

_This is getting tedious, _he thought, bringing his hands up to his head to stroke his temples.

"You look like you're having some trouble." Naruto looked up when a calm voice came from a short distance behind him. "Try thinking of each seal as a different type of funnel for your chakra; it always helps me."

Before he turned around, he made sure that his hand was resting at his side where he kept his shiruken holster.

"Relax," said the young boy, his age or probably a year or two younger. He held his hands up in a placating manner and smiled in that same calm way. "I don't want to start anything. Just wanted to see what a fellow shinobi was up to."

Naruto blinked pointedly, "You're a shinobi?" Naruto was a bit suspicious of that: he had no Konoha headband. Did he forget it at home? And did _kids _become shinobi?

"Ha, well, not yet, you know? I've seen you in class. You've been there for a year, right?"

Naruto flushed, embarrassed. "Yeah…" It has actually been a year and a half. "…when did _you_ start?"

The boy smiled with ease with his lips curving slightly up towards his eyes, the eyes of a young boy who had it all in life. "I started about four months ago, during the new season."

Naruto blinked again. "How old are you?"

"I just turned five after I entered the academy early in the summer."

Naruto nodded, "Right, right. I heard there were a few students who were coming in before August. Uh," He stepped toward the boy and bowed his head slightly, "My name's Uzumaki Naruto, huh. I can't say I've seen a lot of you… Oh! But now that I think about it, aren't you the one who can use a fireball jutsu?" Naruto asked eagerly.

The boy nodded with the same graceful smile, "Yes! I learned how to perform the jutsu from my father, actually."

Naruto smiled, though his brows furrowed. "Huh… that must be so cool." He didn't specify as to what, but a small tinge of jealousy fluttered about in the back of his head.

The dark haired boy also bowed his head, "This is rude of me, my name is Uchiha Sasuke by the way."

Naruto furrowed his brow. "Uchiha? Uh, isn't that a fan or something?"

Sasuke laughed, "Well, yes. But that would make you a spiral fishcake if we went along that route."

Naruto frowned, "I happen to like those in my ramen?"

Sasuke perked up, "Ramen? Do you make it yourself?"

"Hah! I wish… well, actually, not really. I really like Ichiraku's so I go there pretty often." Naruto suddenly felt a bit apprehensive. He just met this Uchiha Sasuke, and here he was just giving up details of his life like this. Maybe this was some kind of enemy of his father's? _Err… I mean, the Yondaime's._

"That sounds good. I will have to go find this place and try their ramen. Is it nearby?"

Naruto hated giving directions. "It's uh… by the big red tent where there're a lot of those paper lanterns and that one really small sakura tree that hasn't really grown in a long time but it's too hard or too much of a hassle to pull out and no one has done it yet… oh, and near that big four story apartment complex where they have the clothes shop on the first floor."

Sasuke looked at him for a second, then flashed another great smile and nodded. "Ok! I know where now. I'll let you get back to your training, but maybe we can spar or practice together? Let me know at the academy if you feel like it."

Naruto nodded, a happy grin animating his usually stiff jaw. "Nice meeting you, Fan-man."

Sasuke laughed. "You too, spiral fishcake."

They grinned, and then Naruto turned back around after he saw Sasuke walking back up onto the road. _Maybe the Uchiha district is nearby?_ He thought to himself, smiling since he had just made a friend.

Shaking his head, Naruto went back to his seals.

_Try thinking of each seal as a different funnel for your chakra_. Naruto looked at his hands which had taken the shape of the ram seal. "Always helps him, huh?"

Closing his eyes, Naruto began concentrating as the idea formed in his mind.

The next couple of weeks, Sasuke and Naruto practiced taijutsu together, sparred, and worked on chakra control, which was something that Naruto lacked quite a bit.

That didn't matter though. They worked well as a team, even finding out that there were cool taijutsu moves that they could learn that would complement each other. Naruto finally became efficient in making each of the seals, even doing them backwards and quickly as they were called out by either Sasuke or one of his teachers.

They even got to learn more about one another. Sasuke finally found out why Naruto thought it was so cool to have someone like a father to ask for help with jutsu: because he had no parents to turn to for help. Naruto quickly brushed that off, saying he had Iruka-sensei if he ever really needed some guidance, plus the Hokage would often give him a tip or a word of advice from time to time whenever he had the time in his busy schedule.

Naruto also learned a bit about the rest of Sasuke's family, including his strong brother who had graduated from the academy only a year or two older than him. "So, Itachi's real powerful now, huh?"

Sasuke nodded. "He's actually a jonin, though he hasn't taken any pupils yet."

Naruto nodded, surprised. "Wow… Maybe he'd take us and one more other person as his three-man cell? You did hear about that, right? How we're going to split up into teams of three among the classrooms?"

Sasuke nodded. "Yes. I was hoping we'd be teammates."

Naruto grinned. "Hell yeah. We'd kick ninja butts, hard!"

Sasuke laughed.

They talked about lighter topics too. During one training session after Naruto finally mastered the fireball jutsu, although his was incredibly weak compared to Sasuke's.

"You know, that Hyuga girl has got it for you."

Naruto blinked, "Wha?"

Sasuke tried not to laugh. _Oh, how oblivious he is to the world._

"You know, she's fallen for you…"

"…eh… she's, you know, really interested in you."

"Did I do something wrong?"

Sasuke smacked his face. "Oi, baka. I mean, she wants you."

"Wants me for what?"

And it kept going on like that for a while until Sasuke started getting suspicious that Naruto was being like that intentionally, just to mess with his head.

"So, do you like that pink-haired girl?" Naruto asked Sasuke as he chowed down on his bowl of ramen.

Sasuke watched bemusedly as the blond stuffed his face full with his chopsticks. "I don't know. She's nice when she's not yelling out to try and get my attention."

Naruto grinned. "I think that's pretty cute, actually."

Sasuke immediately wrote that tidbit into the back of his brain so that he could pass along a hint to the Hyuga girl later on that week. Probably after their next test.

"But I'm actually interested in Yamanaka Ino…" Naruto said matter-of-factly.

Sasuke smirked. "Really? You like them loud, huh?" He asked, minus tact.

"I like passionate girls." He said, grinning.

"Oh, did you study your kunai throwing trajectory assignment for this next test? Also, you have to remember to memorize the different types of throwing weapons and how to best utilize each of them."

Naruto groaned. "No more memorization… I can't even remember my birthday sometimes."

Sasuke bit back his frown. After all of the time that he spent with Naruto, he knew that wasn't just a joke. He was sure that sometimes the boy forgot the day he was born, just because it was never really celebrated.

Sasuke finished his bowl and stood up. "Just go home tonight and memorize them. I'll help you tomorrow if you get to class early enough."

Naruto smirked. Sasuke always had some of the best grades when it came to some of this stuff, but what he was really good at was application of all of the knowledge they were accumulating… in other words, Sasuke was a hands-on, give-me-a-target-and-I'll-blow-it-up kind of guy. The note taking… well, he got by enough where it mattered.

Naruto though? Naruto hated taking notes. Hated reading them. Hated sorting them out afterwards… hell, he hated listening to anything any of the teachers were saying when he was in the classroom. Sasuke just couldn't understand how he could just take a complete 180 when they were out training together.

When they were away from the class, suddenly he was an avid listener. Suddenly he could quickly recall certain events for the history section of the class, and he could perform taijutsu sparring at a different level. It was like the classroom had boggled him down.

"Alright Sasuke. See you tomorrow."

Sasuke grinned, nodding. "Later."

Naruto returned the grin, his eyes narrowing to give him a fox-like look on his grubby face from the lack of table manners.

Sasuke left his payment for his ramen and left Naruto alone after bidding the stand owner, Mr. Teuchi, goodbye.

Naruto looked forward to tomorrow, even though there was a pretty big test coming up, because he knew that somehow he had come along a lot further than he could have on his own. Heck, maybe it was even about time for him to open up the scroll and try and look through it to see what he could learn!

Naruto paid the stand owner and waved goodbye at his young daughter who smiled fondly at him. He then stood upright and took off running in the direction of his apartment, eager to learn a new jutsu to show to the Uchiha the next morning before the test.

What Naruto didn't know, was that by the time he got to his apartment, pulled the scroll out, and began going over the first technique listed in the scroll, _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_, everyone in the Uchiha compound was dead except Uchiha Sasuke, and his Jonin brother Itachi.

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><p>Tbc<p>

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><p><strong>Note: <strong>Anyone want to take a guess as to why these two hit it off so well? (Besides that they're probably in to each other in canon, but I ain't going there in this story, lol) Also, I know they're "too young" to be thinking about girls, but just go with it. :p I don't have to explain why I'm so weird, do I?

Thanks for reading.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

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><p>It has been two years already and still no threats on his life were made. There were no assassins plaguing Konoha left and right, searching for the Yondaime's brat. There were actually a few mission requests that were always turned down by the Hokage. And one request to meet with the fire Daimyo which he responded with an B-rank messenger mission to inform the Daimyo that, at the moment, a meeting was impossible due to recent threats made on the boys life (which was a lie, but he knew the capitol had only a few competent spies and he was already feeding them bad information) lest the Daimyo himself came to Konoha, and he also included in the message that he was more than welcome to come for a visit, and the Hokage had even provided an escort, who was also the messenger and one of their best shinobi: Maito Gai.<p>

Sarutobi would never say that he sent Gai simply to head off that particular expedition, but after Gai returned alone carrying a royal message urging the Hokage to continue to care for the boy to the best of their ability, he knew he made the right choice by sending the green-clad embodiment of energy. Apparently the Daimyo could barely stand him and sent him packing even after he insisted on staying as a paid vacation, as Sarutobi recommended to him with enthusiasm before he left.

According to Kakashi, who flippantly spoke about his friend and self-proclaimed rival one day after a mission report, Gai was hurt and confused about the lack of courtesy the Daimyo had shown him, but he vowed to run five laps around the village until he could come up with a proper explanation for the sudden reaction by their Daimyo. He eventually decided that it must have been something he said, and immediately went to Kakashi for assistance afterward. This prompted a very blunt conversation about Gai's mannerisms, which ended up in a contest between the two.

The Hokage laughed at that.

All in all, Sarutobi even began to hope that maybe there would be no more enemies with grudges toward Konoha or the boy, simply because of the rumor that he was the son of the Yondaime. Or if there were grudges, perhaps they came from manageable threats.

The Hokage was very content. For a long time he feared some sort of political boil over and still there was no word from Iwa. But regardless, they had enough time to instill the basics into the boy. He was going to be nine this October which was only a month from now and in another two or three years he would probably graduate from the academy and become a full-fledged ninja.

The boy showed promise; that was certain. When Sarutobi himself took the time to teach the boy the water-walking jutsu, Naruto immediately picked up on his demonstration and began trying to jump from the top of a raised bridge near the bathhouses and land on the water without breaking the surface. It wasn't something that youngsters picked up easily (not any his age or in this time of peace), but he was taught how to do that and tree climbing at six, so he figured Naruto could pull it off if he had his heart set on it.

And he did. Actually, his heart never faltered when it came to his training or the path to becoming a shinobi. He knew the boy trained constantly, even at home, and that he was having a few barriers pop up, especially in his chakra control area, but after a few days he had the water-walking skill down pat and Sarutobi left him, once again, under the tutelage of Kakashi, who arrived forty-five minutes late that particular day.

Yes, Naruto was growing to be a fine ninja. And no wonder either, with the great tutoring he was receiving from three different parties. Well… he was still wearing orange. Perhaps that was one thing that Sarutobi had yet to mention to the boy.

But with the Uchiha all but massacred, Itachi now gone, and Sasuke grief-stricken… well, the two boys that had fostered a well-known kinship suddenly couldn't face one another.

Sasuke was a wreck. He stopped showing up to class for a few days after the incident, but eventually Naruto asked the Hokage if he'd try and coax him out of his house, after failing to do so himself for several days.

When Sarutobi arrived on the Uchiha grounds after it was cleaned up, he ruefully stalked the courtyard as he remembered the silly reason why the Uchiha were dead today. Save two.

When he finally steeled himself and stepped up to Sasuke's home, a house once inhabited by his aunt, uncle and two cousins because he somehow felt that was more comfortable than living in the house where his parents were slain by his brother (and yet he still refused to live with a foster family or the orphanage as Naruto once had. Sarutobi knocked firmly on the hard sugi-wood door surrounded by great big maple trim colored blood red, a style of doorway very Uchiha-esque.

"Sasuke." The Hokage called, and was surprised when the door slowly opened up only big enough for the young boy to stick his small head and weary, onyx black eyes out the door as he gazed up at him.

"Hokage-sama?"

"Yes, Sasuke-kun." He said, smiling warmly. "I have visited you some times before, have I not?"

Sasuke nodded and opened the door all of the way, stepping back to allow his Hokage to enter. He wasn't really in the mood to entertain guests, but this wasn't just a guest: this was the Hokage. And you did not shut your door on the Hokage, no matter how upset, tired and grief-stricken you were.

"Thank you." said the Hokage.

Sasuke once again nodded. The fire that used to be in this boy was dying down. Sure, two years have already passed; however, in those two years Sasuke has secluded himself to different homes in the Uchiha district of the village that sat bare like a ghost town. Sarutobi saw the boy walking aimlessly from time to time, and wondered how many spirits haunted the boy, day and night. It hurt the old man to see such a young spirit react so solemnly when greeted. Not many children acted like Sasuke did.

It reminded him of Naruto a few years ago.

_It was before Naruto met Iruka-kun_, mused the Hokage.

Sasuke lead him down the hall at the entrance and to the right into a large living room area where he motioned with his small arm to a brown leather couch that used to be his Uncle's favorite place to sit, talk about current events with his father and laugh over jokes with his boys and nephews. Sasuke remembered that they once all played a board game on the small coffee table together, but it wasn't anything new or interesting. Everywhere he walked he saw the ghosts of the people who still continued on with their days, every once in a while greeting him like they weren't dead. His favorite was the old woman out by the bakery who gave him a small loaf of bread to take back home every week… but every time he stood in front of that house, _**his **__house, _he was reminded that everyone really was gone and there was no bread in his hands, and no way of bringing any of them back.

After sitting down the Hokage smiled at the recently turned 5 year old who excused himself and went to make him and his guest some tea. He was a real grown up for such a young age, as expected of an Uchiha.

"I hear that you recently increased the size of your fireball technique." Called out the Hokage, while he peered around the home and wondered how the young boy felt about living in the houses of the deceased.

"Yes." He said, not offering any more information than necessary to answer the statement. He set the water to boil and breathed a lick of flame, after using only a few seals, underneath the pot to make the water boil quickly.

"Splendid." Sarutobi grinned, sensing the slight flare in chakra. "You _will_ show me after tea, won't you?" The Hokage asked, looking around the room lit only by the waning sun creeping through a window behind thin curtains.

Sasuke nodded.

They talked somewhat, but when Sarutobi left after a brief demonstration of his slightly larger fireball jutsu and after making sure to praise the boy and offer a few pointers before leaving, he felt like he didn't learn much of anything from the brief visit nearly two years ago.

He visited from time to time, and he heard that recently he and Naruto were at least on speaking terms again, but they had lost their budding friendship. Instead, it was replaced with a strong, hearty rivalry.

The Hokage fondly remembered seeing one of their spars during a demonstration put on by the academy.

Naruto had improved in his taijutsu, and took to the training given to him by guest instructors like Gai and even Chouza, both of whom introduced different techniques including a very clever way of using a person's own weight against them as demonstrated by Chouza on Iruka, much to the academy-goers' delight.

Sasuke's ninjutsu was unmatched by anyone else in his class, but he was predictably accurate, if that was a flaw. Naruto seemed to be able to exploit it though, and he rarely fell back on his ninjutsu in a spar or even most of his fights, relying heavily on radical taijutsu that had him rolling backward and shooting a heel up against the extended arm of an attacker to throw him off or dislocate the limb, depending on the force he used, and then completing his movement by tucking his knees in and leaping up into a descending knee strike just as his toes touched the ground after the roll.

Sarutobi watched that particular spar, and felt pride in both of the boys when they showed that they were both resourceful and versatile, and yet strong.

In grades… well, Naruto was dead last. Sasuke called him _dobe_ from time to time, but Naruto always insisted that grades weren't the only thing that made a good ninja.

As far as the massacre and the young Uchiha's mental health went, Sasuke told him that his encounter with Itachi was brief. He blasted him briefly with a powerful eye jutsu and then left him there at the compound. He told him to come looking for him if he wanted vengeance. Apparently, the jutsu wasn't strong enough to do real psychological damage. Or so he thought. The boy seemed level-headed, for the most part. And he had a good heart, but he knew that he was struggling with some transparent inner turmoil.

After Sarutobi asked the boy what indeed was it that he wanted if he were to go seek out his brother, Sasuke responded that he wasn't quite sure. Answers maybe, or questions that he didn't know to ask, so that he could come up with his own answers.

The Hokage smiled at that. The boy indeed had a good head on his shoulders, and he hoped that the two youngsters patched up their relationship and became friends again so that they could continue to improve like they had those first couple of weeks.

He looked down at his paper work on his desk when a knock came at the door, and after beckoning the visitor in, Hatake Kakashi stepped lazily through the doorway.

"Hatake-san. How was your mission to Taki?" asked the old monkey, grinning in his casual way when he felt everything seemed just fine. The twitch in his eye showed otherwise, and Kakashi didn't fail to pick up on that. "You are three days late." The Hokage pointed out to him.

"Right, about that… I met up with an old friend and had to take care of his dog for him while he was away for a couple of days, but the mission was completed on the fourth day."

The Hokage sighed. "In all seriousness, were you able to smuggle out the spy from Iwa?"

Kakashi nodded, gazing through a half-lidded single eye as he looked around as if uninterested, though he spoke politely. "He will arrive shortly. He is currently debriefing with Yamanaka and Morino-san."

"I see. You have written your report as well?"

Kakashi nodded affirmative and reached into his vest to procure a folder. "There are a few photos, but what is really interesting is the letter I procured while infiltrating one of Iwa's outposts northwest of Taki."

The Hokage raised a brow, impressed. "Really." He said, and reached out his arm as Kakashi handed him the folder. After looking through a few of the pictures and reading an excerpt of the letter and then looking to the actual letter folded away into its envelope, he frowned.

"It's a contract… on Uchiha Itachi. How odd."

"It seems like he established quite a reputation in Iwa. The bing books in the area, including the ones in Taki, list him as a high B class missing nin, which is barely accurate."

"Right. He is closer to a high A class shinobi," said the Hokage.

"Also, during my scouting around the border and according to our agent, Naruto's name and likeness are being passed around quite a bit. But the reason why nothing has happened yet is because they fear retaliation by Konoha and the Fire Country, and although the legends of the Yondaime are as ridiculous as they are numerous in the Land of Earth, they are not willing to risk outright war and their Kage has actually forbidden his shinobi from taking any of the contracts on Naruto's head."

Sarutobi looked grim. "Which means that they are planning it, rather than just lashing out because of the old pains they feel toward the Yondaime… he really was a dangerous person, back then in that evil war."

Kakashi nodded. _I saw that firsthand. _

Sarutobi sighed as he leaned back in his chair and picked up his pipe. As he lifted the spout up to his lips, a small ember suddenly appeared in its opening, lighting the tobacco on fire as he sucked in the smoke. Kakashi saw his Hokage look somber for a moment as he stood there, so the jonin paid special attention to him as he took in a deep breath after letting out a puff of smoke from his tobacco pipe.

Finally, when the Hokage spoke up, Kakashi felt as if weight was being redistributed on the man's shoulders, as if he were getting ready to set down some heavy burden upon Kakashi that would change the way he viewed his world.

"Kakashi… if you were in my position, do you think you could give the boy up, if it meant avoiding another confrontation like the third great war?"

Closing his eyes and turning away from the Hokage who could now only see the more concealed side of his face, Kakashi looked up to the ceiling as he tried to think about a good enough response to a question like that.

Hours later to the Hokage, but a measly twenty seconds to Kakashi who felt like he couldn't take enough time to come up with a satisfactory answer for the hypothetical, he finally spoke up. "Well… if I was Hokage, and you were not… and I had to decide whether or not to give up my sensei's only son to the land of his worst enemies…"

Sarutobi leaned in, interested in what the intelligent yet dismissive man had to say, especially after he broke the promise never to mention the truth about Naruto's relationship with the Yondaime, even if it was undeniably true and the current situation made it nearly impossible to avoid.

"I would come to you for counsel."

Sarutobi laughed.

_Of course. Thank you for your trust, Kakashi-kun._ The Hokage smiled softly and then waved his hand toward the door.

"Thank you for serving your village and your Hokage well. Take some time off, maybe go chase after a girl for once, eh, Hatake-san?"

The silver-haired jonin waved. "Same goes for you, _professor_." His eye closed up as he seemed to smile while he spoke his goodbyes and left the Hokage alone to look over the large file and reminisce about the mother of his children who passed away long before her time. He reached into the drawer on the top right hand part of his desk and placed on the desk a small picture of a strong kunoichi who was stolen from him not by the blade, but by illness over thirty years ago.

_You wouldn't give up on the boy, would you, darling?_ He took off his hat and set it and his pipe down on the desk.

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><p><strong>Author: <strong>Thanks so much for all of your reviews and for reading and your continued interest. This chapter took a little longer to dish out because I had to make sure everything sat well with the previous ones and for the plot later in the story, but if you notice any continuity issues please don't hesitate to let me know. I am not a good writer, but I am pretty good at learning from mistakes as long as I know I've made them. :p

By the way, the point of Naruto and Sasuke meeting at a younger age (and actually speaking and bonding with one another, unlike the manga/anime at that age in which they seemed to have just passed by and glanced at one another a few times, possibly because of Sasuke's distancing after the massacre) is to provide some background story for the parts after the academy. So this story assumes that Naruto is also two years older than Sasuke, which always made sense to me because he supposedly failed the final exam of the academy twice because he couldn't produce a bunshin or do whatever the previous tests were.

I guess this story is going to be pretty long if I maintain an interest in it. I also am doing trig for my transfer degree, so… encourage me! Heh.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

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><p><strong>Author: <strong>Thank you for all of your comments and suggestions Tristan76, I'll be looking back at my previous chapters to make sure that everything seems in order. Also thanks to SIIKIH36 for all of your reviews so far. But no, Ino was not the one who died. I had a lot of hits for the last chapter. Over 1 thousand! Whoa.

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><p>Naruto smirked. He wiped away the steam that had fogged up the mirror in his small bathroom of the apartment. He adjusted the goggles sitting on his head and turned to leave the bathroom, but then he saw a tiny glimmer of steel sitting on the edge of the sink's countertop.<p>

Setting down his green goggles, he picked up the headband and tied its blue sash around his head.

Smiling with glee, he jabbed his thumb against the leaf symbol for Konohagakure no Sato.

_It's about damn time._

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><p>Naruto sat in Yamanaka-san's office, his eyes shooting back and forth with brows narrowed heavily underneath the headband that he washed and shined. He was happy to be a graduate from the academy, but also grumpy because he was waiting on his bi-monthly check up with Yamanaka-san. It was always a tedious thing these mental health examinations. The one reason why it was bearable was because from time to time he would get a glimpse of the blue-eyed Yamanaka girl, Inoichi's young daughter Ino. After all of this time, Naruto still had yet to really speak to her. Sure, she was in his class and he had ample opportunities to go up to her and tell her how he felt, but he always became so nervous and clammed up whenever he was speaking to her. Even worse, he noticed that she had taken a liking to Sasuke, and, still trying to maintain some sort of friendship with the dark-haired Uchiha, Naruto reluctantly backed off.<p>

And what does that bastard do? He blows her off. No, not just Ino! Sakura and several other girls, too!

Naruto was furious the first time he gave them that disinterested glance and smirked, saying they looked like fools, all wasting their time on a foolish thing like love. And then the girls, instead of realizing he was acting like a dirt bag, they just fell deeper for his unintentional trap. Naruto couldn't believe how much of a moron the Uchiha was sometimes, but he figured maybe the boy was suffering from brain damage after the terrible loss he suffered at the hands of his own brother. The terrifying story made Naruto sort of glad that he had no family, sometimes. Only sometimes.

But if love was foolish, then Naruto was born a fool, because love was the only thing that was really important to him, though he wasn't sure he knew what it really was in the first place.

"Uzumaki. Come on out in the lobby, son." Naruto looked up when he heard Yamanaka Inoichi's voice call for him. He stood up from his chair inside of the office where he was waiting for Yamanaka-san again before they would head outside underneath a tree behind the complex. It was less private, but Inoichi insisted that they speak with plenty of air to breathe in to get their lungs going, saying that it was healthy for them.

Naruto stood up without saying a word and continued with routine. He would step outside, they would talk for about thirty minutes, he'd go inside and speak with the nurse and they'd run a few physical tests and he'd have to answer some more questions and then he'd have a five minute session with Ibiki, who now took to teaching Naruto short lessons that would better prepare him for any time he may one day spend under interrogation. Apparently there was a way of being able to tell if the person conducting the torture was serious about using various tactics or not or if he, was in, fact soft.

When Naruto stepped out, however, he saw that Yamanaka-san wasn't alone. Right beside him was his young blonde daughter.

"Ino-san." Naruto greeted, respectfully.

Ino smiled, as did her father. "Hi Naruto-kun." She always called him that.

They were friends. For Ino, the awe had worn off after she had become a shinobi. Sure, she had a little crush on him and she may have liked to get to know him better, but he was always so reserved. He kept to himself and spent most of his time training to become stronger or going through different evaluations here and there. It was odd, she thought, because the only other person who her daddy saw was Uchiha Sasuke, that cute boy from her class who lost his family due to his crazy brother who had apparently flipped and killed everyone but his little brother.

He gave off a bit of bad-boy vibe and Ino liked it, but the real reason why she had even sought any of his attention was due to a silly dispute between her and her friend Haruno Sakura several years ago. By now, it was a fuzzy memory, but from time to time Ino would look back on some things she wrote for herself to try and remember so that she didn't lose sight of where her own decisions came from. She kept a small diary hidden behind the headboard of her purple-colored bed.

Naruto, on the other hand, was a sunny ball of energy in the classroom that liked to play pranks and mess with people. But she knew from his visits with her daddy that he was so different outside of the class. He became seemed so dense and unaware in class, but outside of it he was sharp and intelligent, witty when he spoke rather than biting and sarcastic, and sometimes he even impressed her father enough that he would often praise the boy when they were sitting together with her mom for supper.

Inoichi smiled and pat his young daughter on her shoulder and pressed her forward gently. "I know you both have met, but the two of you haven't really gotten to know each other, have you?"

Naruto nodded, "We are…" he laughed, "Well, we _were_ classmates."

Ino smiled hesitantly. Naruto caught onto the awkward smile and gave a knowing smile back. "We didn't speak much in class, but you know, I was so busy trying to graduate this year since I failed the past two exams that I really kind of became a shut-in in class."

Inoichi nodded, the look on his face giving something away, but what Naruto wasn't quite sure. Maybe he was giving less info than he let on about his intentions for bringing his daughter in today.

"Perhaps the two of you can spend some time together training? I know that Ino is looking for a test subject for the new jutsu she just learned," At this, Ino looked up immediately and smiled softly at the young blond boy in front of her, while Inoichi continued speaking, "And you could probably use some experience with the mind of a kunoichi so that you're better prepared when you encounter one."

Oblivious, Naruto furrowed his brow and asked, "There's a difference between facing a Kunoichi and a male ninja?"

Inoichi's smile grew wide, and he shook his head yes and began walking back toward his office. "Your check up is cleared until October 11th. Have fun you two."

They watched him as he shut the door behind him and Ino immediately turned back to look at Naruto and a weird silence crept over them as Naruto tried to fish for words to say in his flip-flopping memory bank. Something about a black cat crossing his path made him think of Kakashi briefly, so he just asked the first thing that popped into his head after that.

"So how's your jonin sensei?" Naruto asked, grinning.

Ino shrugged, "He's pretty annoying, but so are Shika and Chouji."

Naruto nodded as he thought of all of the quarrels he had with not only Sasuke but Sakura as well. The two of them were insufferable sometimes and when they were both angry with him it was even worse. Neither one of them wanted to train with one another, so Naruto had to try and learn what he could from the brief lectures that Kakashi gave and the multitude of D-rank missions that they were completing. Even worse, Naruto had only learned the first jutsu in the scroll of sealing, which he still carried around with him every day.

Kage bunshin no jutsu was an interesting technique that allowed him to produce clones that could attack and take a hit before being expelled. He was only able to summon sixteen clones, meaning that he was nowhere near the _Taju_ Kage bunshin no jutsu, which was the one actually sealed into the scroll. Supposedly, one was capable of summoning a thousand clones that could attack simultaneously, on their own, with the caster of the jutsu able to sneak in and conceal himself within the clones to get the hits that mattered while his clones peppered the target. Naruto, unfortunately, could not gather enough chakra and after the twenty-fifth seal performed, he noticed that his chakra was suddenly being zapped with no explanation. Whatever it was, he only ended up unconscious once. After that first time, he learned from his mistake and stopped pushing so hard after he felt that strange pulling sensation at the pit of his stomach.

"So you learned a new jutsu?" Naruto asked with sincere interest.

Ino nodded. "Yeah, it's a Yamanaka style technique that takes over the body of another person. My dad was joking about me needing a test subject. I can't possibly ask you to let me use the jutsu on you."

Naruto smirked. "Will it kill me?"

The girl looked at him in surprise. She never thought anything like _that_ could happen. Was it possible that the jutsu would mess up and he would die from it, or worse yet, both of them would? Ino shook her head slowly, not totally sure when she said, "I don't think so."

He stifled a chuckle, "Well, then maybe it'll do me some good. C'mon, we should go to one of the training areas. There a place that you feel more comfortable with?"

Ino shook her head, "We can go wherever. It doesn't matter."

They left the interrogation department where Yamanaka-san's office was and Ibiki's sadistic self worked, and it took them both about thirty minutes to make the walk from the building to training field number four, which was a little further away from the main roads of the village, actually nearer its outskirts than anything else. As they were walking, the noticed a small white snake making a hole underneath a rock as they walked into the forested area. Naruto stopped for a second to look, then smirked when Ino made a face.

On their walk, Naruto looked around and couldn't see them, but he knew the usual small group of shinobi were constantly keeping tabs on him and they followed him even though there hasn't been a single attempt on his life. He wasn't scared of anything happening anymore, because he felt relatively safe in the village with all of the protection that it offered. Heck, his sensei was one of the strongest ninja around, and he knew that he was always keeping an eye on him. So, again, Naruto felt he had nothing to worry about.

Naruto and Ino spoke with one another about their annoying teammates and some of the missions that they had done. They also started talking about Ino's family and what they did on the side when her father was not in the interrogation department, and Naruto was surprised to find out that her family was the one that owned the one story flower shop with the greenhouse next door to it. Apparently, the family had a long tradition of floral arrangement, and everyone, whether they married into the family or were born into the family had to learn how to develop the skill. Inoichi met Oroi, Ino's mother, during a civilian class that he was brought on to teach about floral arrangements. They argued over the correct arrangement to use when celebrating a baby's birth, and very soon after that, young Oroi became pregnant with Ino.

Naruto sat down on the grass as Ino explained how her parents met. He pulled the large scroll from its place, slung on his back and placed it on the ground before him.

"… you know, so they didn't get to marry until I was two years old. I'm in their wedding pictures that they took. I was wearing a real pretty purple kimono that was a smaller duplicate of my mom's."

"Do you still have it?"

"Not all of it. We scrap-booked it last year, actually."

Naruto blinked. "Huh. So you cut it up?"

Ino nodded. "Yeah… so anyways, do you want to do some training?"

Naruto smirked, nodding affirmatively. "Hit me with your best shot. Let's take a look at this new jutsu."

"You know, you spooked me when you asked me if you could die from it… I'm really not sure. I've never heard of that happening to anyone unless the user forced the body that's taken over into a dangerous situation… like maybe jumping off the faces of that mountain over there." She pointed up to the Hokage monument.

Naruto gulped. "Well… don't do that to me, promise?" He looked warily at the blonde who just grinned mischievously, making Naruto nervous while he sat there to just take the jutsu.

"Are you ready?" She asked, but before Naruto could back out of it, she formed several seals and then ended with the Yamanaka special seal which looked as if she were using her hands to frame a picture for a drawing.

"Uh… Ino, hang on!" Naruto said, starting to stand when he saw the flare of chakra lick the grass around them.

Suddenly, Naruto's eyes closed and his head was unable to keep itself up. He stayed like that for a few moments when a soft thud was heard as Ino's body slumped lifeless to the ground. Naruto's eyes opened then, and he looked up.

Ino used Naruto's eyes to look at his palms up close. "This is always so crazy… wow, I can't believe I'm actually controlling him."

Ino smirked and looked over at her body as it lay in the grass. She looked at it inquisitively and began walking over to it. She knelt down beside her body and pulled her head into her lap and stroked away a few strands of hair from the front of her body's face.

She didn't know why, but she found the concept of this out-of-her-own-body experience as something miraculous. In fact, how was it even possible? She now knew that she wanted to learn more about her lineage and the techniques, chakra and customs that came with it.

As she sat there on her knees, looking down, she heard a small rustle behind her and turned just as two wet-sounding splats reached her ears. On the floor lay masks smeared with blood with lifeless bodies attached to them, necks contorted sickeningly like a wet rag that was twisted around over and over again.

Ino shook in Naruto's body, but she instinctively held onto her own little shell as a disturbingly wicked presence appeared before them.

At first, Ino thought she saw the eyes of a snake. She shivered when a hissing laugh broke the silence that came after the death of the two ANBU shinobi that were on watch. Holding an umbrella in the middle of the day was a man wearing a jonin flak vest with long black hair and sharp cheek bones. He looked like he was made out of scales made out of ivory. His eyes were lined in purple with paint running down the sides of his nose in sharp points that gave him a very serpent-like appearance.

"A Namikaze and a Yamanaka. _And_ the scroll of sealing… how… ridiculously convenient."

He cackled throatily, crouching down until he was at eye-level with Naruto. Ino looked into his golden eyes with those snake pupils and her jutsu suddenly dispelled. When she woke up, Naruto was holding her body away from the white-skinned man and was fixing him with a dangerous looking glare of his own as he sat there on one knee, his whole body defying the demon that had happened upon them.

Orochimaru's smile widened slowly, sinisterly as he laughed in a strange way. It made Naruto's nose wrinkle as he seemed to begin to snarl. "Huhuhu… How interesting this has become. Normally the prey doesn't have eyes like these." He said in his self-indulgent voice while Naruto's scowl deepened.

Clouds had begun to swirl around the area and a trickle of rain fell upon them as the man neared them. Looking at his umbrella as she lay back against Naruto's chest with her arms tucked in, she thought, _Looks like he knows something we don't._

Ino closed her eyes and prayed that lightning wouldn't strike with the rain.

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><p>tbc<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

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><p><strong>Author:<strong> I hope, for any of you who reviewed or read my original one-shot of this story, that you did not forget about it. I am only working on the background at this point. If anyone would like for me to post the original, I might do that on my profile if you want.

Now, on to the greatest villain of the show.

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><p>The clouds overhead hung above them like wraiths, smothering their sky and blackening it out until every shred of light was torn, piece by piece, killed away. There was no wind, like there was no hope. The two young children who barely made the beginner's shinobi rank a few months ago and had gone on a few errand missions with their new jonin instructors had not even the smallest kindling's worth of comprehension of their current predicament.<p>

Ino's heart rocked her chest back and forth, enticing a shudder deep from the small of her back to her shoulders. He was looking directly at Naruto, and Naruto just kept glaring back at him. _Can't he feel that killing intent? I can barely… I can't breathe… I can't… I can't breathe…_

"I can't breathe…" She coughed; she wrenched what little air she could out of her lungs to vibrate her vocal chords. A muffled boom of thunder sounded far off in the distance. The rain had yet to pour, but the clouds above them were swelling up with rain.

Naruto looked at Ino and immediately pulled out a kunai and turned back to look at the man with golden eyes and sharp, predatory slits for pupils. Without any hesitation he struck with an upward swing at the pale throat of the dark haired man. To his dismay, his attack was sidestepped, and when Naruto tried again, he was shocked to see that his kunai was caught with a lazy hand and his middle and ring fingers pinched together over the flat of the blade. Naruto pulled to get away from the snake's grip, but felt it impossible as suddenly his whole arm felt as if it were constricted. He looked down and saw the white snake he noticed before they reached the training ground had wrapped itself around his arm and coiled to bring him in closer.

In a frighteningly swift motion, the pale faced man pulled Naruto's arm in, twisted his own arm inwards and shifted his elbow up and over until he was easily leading Naruto around with his arm caught under his armpit and his right shoulder pressed into the boy's chest as he grinned with his head turned enough so that the boy could see one of his eyes as he sneered at him. The man handled him such ease that Naruto felt particularly helpless, like if he were a rabbit with a broken leg and the snake was coiling around it after picking him off from its hiding place.

"You're a little too eager, aren't you?" He asked; amusement etched itself clearly on his terribly beautiful face. There was a real snake hiss coming from underneath his arm as the pale snake slithered its way off of the boy's arm and into the sleeve of the Sannin.

Naruto winced at the pain of the pressure being forced on the wrong side of his arm to overextend it, but his glare never faltered. His grip on Ino tightened even as she squirmed, and his own killing intent had caused Ino's lungs to suddenly expand as oxygen rushed in.

"I wonder how long that look on your face would stay if I were to take you along with me. I know of many ways to make even a savage interrogator scream and beg for me to end him… like that Morino Ibiki-kun you see from time to time. It's been eons since I've spoken with that little hatchling."

Ino's eyes widened slightly. _Naruto is being targeted? _She glanced at him and questioned over and over why a young kid like him would be the target of a scary shinobi like the white-faced man. After having gotten a clearer look at him, she suddenly realized why she had that nagging suspicion that she had seen him or a picture of him from somewhere. He was the legendary Orochimaru, the Sandaime Hokage's pupil along with two others who were later known as the Sannin. Ino knew that much. Her high grades in class probably weren't the reason why she recalled that particular memory of him, but she did pay the best attention in class when not fawning over her fleeting love interests.

The man standing before them was elegant but deadly like a well-derived poison; one made of the fangs of a wretched reptile that could not choose whether to inject its venom. Without fail, this person was one who struck to kill, never incapacitate or subdue. His distinction was not only in the difference of his skin or his serpentine eyes, it also carried into his sense of style and the way he carried himself. The first thing that she noticed after coming down from the constricting high of the murderous killing intent was his prolific style of kimono. It was copper red with orange-golds and designed with bloody red pomegranate fruit stitched meticulously with the shapes of golden, yellow and brown leaves falling around the forbidden fruit on his chest and sleeves. The stark contrast of his skin on the copper red and the fact that he wore the kimono so loosely made him look like he was from another world, a world much more dangerous than theirs.

Suddenly, Orochimaru let the boy go and Naruto shook his arm to regain feeling in it as the pain subsided. Continuing from where their conversation left off, Naruto clenched his fist tighter around the kunai and cleared his throat.

"What do you want?" Naruto asked, looking up at the Sannin with narrowed eyes.

The Sannin chuckled. "You're an interesting little bargaining chip, Naruto-kun; one that could very well birth some very important conflicts for me." When Naruto made a face, Orochimaru chuckled. He spoke to him in a very hushed and focused voice, his eyes peering deep into him like they had fangs of their own that could protrude and attack from their epicenters. "Confused? You're the Yondaime's son. Konoha is my enemy. Konoha has very old, very bitter enemies; many far more ancient and sourer than I."

"I'm not the Yondaime's son." Naruto scowled, unsettled by the implementations.

He sneered, and the look of scorn did not go unnoticed, because the strangest thing about it was that he didn't seem to be directing it at Naruto. "And indubitably they took the pleasure of informing you as much. You'd think this was Suna, with all of the puppets clunking about, dragging their indolent heels and waving their hollow arms at the flick of his strings."

Ino spoke up, "Are you saying that Naruto's… the Yondaime's heir?"

Orochimaru's smirk screwed taut and he seemed to cackle as he spoke, "Not only that, _my porcelain doll_, but he came, frankly, from the man's _sack_."

Disgusted, Ino made a face at his blunt way of words.

Orochimaru twirled the umbrella back and forth in between his index and middle finger, leaning back slightly to gaze up as the first drops of rain came.

"I believe it is time for me to leave. I can't force you to come with me, Naruto-kun." said the snake Sannin, his tongue slithering out past his deathly pale lips.

Ino found this hard to believe. Neither one of them stood a chance of getting away at this point; she knew this. He would have his way, whether it be to leave them here (likely dead), or take them along with him for whatever he had planned for them.

"So then leave." Naruto offered, rudely.

The pale man's lips curved just the slightest bit. "No, it won't be that simple, Naruto-kun. I can't force_ you_ to come. But let's say I tell you that she has a very pretty face." He smiled and leaned in close, his teeth showing as his voice seemed to take on a different tone. "What would you tell me if I said I _really_ liked her face? What if I were to tell you that I would like for her to come with me? What would you say to that?"

Ino shook. She wasn't sure what at first, but it must have been her whole body recoiling to the very idea of him finding her appealing, even more so to his idea about her tagging along with him. _Hell no!_

But she wondered why he was using her as bait. _He can't possibly think Naruto would-_

"I'll come instead of her, is that enough?"

Ino's head snapped over to look at Naruto, her eyes so wet it almost hurt. The fear the man had instilled within her had been sufficient enough to rock the weak foundation of the 'tough girl' facade that she once carried around with her. Naruto's own serious tone caused her to reel._ You don't know what you're doing, Naruto. He won't stop once he has you. I'll die before you leave here._

"It's sufficient." Orochimaru seemed to loom over them suddenly, drawing near on them as if he were going to spring upon them.

"One condition." Naruto quickly interjected.

The snake Sannin recoiled back, tilting his head slightly and smiling in amusement. "Oh?"

"You allow me to walk her home. I'm sure there's a way for you to make sure that I can't hide from you and she only lives five minutes from here. She's still near the edge of the village so I won't be able to do much from there. And don't try and trick me by saying that you don't know where she lives, because I know you do."

Chuckling, Orochimaru tilted his head the other way, his long black hair shifting soundlessly to the side like a silk curtain. "I suppose there's no harm in that; however, I'll require some collateral."

Naruto glared. "Well, I don't have anything to give you."

The smirk on Orochimaru's face showed him that he begged to differ. "The scroll... there on your back," he said, pointing a long, slender finger at the boy's shoulders, "The Hokage scroll will be your collateral."

He grimaced, but despite Ino and her protests, for she had long ago learned of the scroll and what it contains through the academy, the blond boy conceded. He plucked away the strap and handed the tall man the scroll before standing up and pulling Ino to her feet. Orochimaru's hands grasped the scroll and he lifted it with ease, pulling it to his side as he held it underneath his arm.

The two young shinobi shared a look before Naruto took Ino's hand and began to lead her away.

"I will keep an eye on you. If you dare try and walk towards the Hokage's tower, I will know. If you try and let anyone know that I am here, I will know. Do not pretend to make a fool out of me. You will lose more than your life if you betray your word." With this, Orochimaru's glance came upon the young blonde girl who turned to look just as he spoke.

Naruto stopped and turned around, stepping back toward the Sannin as he offered a serious look that impressed the older man. His dark blue eyes shimmered like blue amber reflecting the light of the sun as he spoke the truth that did not need to be spoken. "I'll never turn on my word. **Ever.**"

Orochimaru watched them as they continued walking hand in hand. Ino's legs were barely keeping her going as Naruto pulled on her hand. She had her entire arm extended by the time they got only ten meters away from the spot where they had met Orochimaru on training ground four.

A single question repeated itself within Ino's skull as she tried to wrap her head around what had just occurred.

_Did Naruto just sell his soul to the shinigami?_

As they walked, Ino tried to think of a reason why he acted that way. Why he just went along with the Sannin when his eyes spoke everything that his words couldn't possibly convey. He was angry. He wanted nothing more than to squeeze the pale man's throat and tear out his esophagus. His cheeks were red from some bitter emotion deep inside of him. Naruto was probably the only shinobi in her class, Ino realized, that had become a man when the shinobi headband was passed down to him.

Their walk wasn't long enough. When he stopped at the front of her residence, which was close by the Yamanaka flower shop, Naruto finally let go of her hand. She looked down at hers as the warmth and strength she felt resonating from him disappeared. "Naruto… can't we tell someone?"

He didn't answer. His eyes avoided hers as she sought him out.

"Can't we do _anything_?"

Naruto frowned. "Ino, there's nothing… it has to be this way. You can tell your father what happened after you see me leave. I'm sure it won't take us long to leave the village."

Her hands were shaking. She reached out and grabbed a hold of his face, forcing him to face her. "You can't do this to me. I feel like the only reason why I'm alive is because you're sacrificing yourself for me."

Naruto smiled. "I'm not. Truthfully, I'm doing this because I think this is what a Hokage would do. I always wanted to be like Oji-san."

Tears fell from her eyes. "You're a baka! Baka! _Baka_!"

His smile reached his eyes when she screeched at him and he reached up and set his palms down on her shoulders, holding them reassuringly as he leaned in and whispered to her. "You know… there're worse things I could do than giving up everything… for you." Their eyes met. Their lips were so close.

Suddenly, those four years of being quiet about his crush together with the dire situation that was presented before him took their toll and Naruto leaned in to press himself into her lips. They melted into one another for the briefest of moments, locked together in bliss even though neither one of them knew how to kiss and it was a sloppy, messy affair. He wished he had acted earlier; cursing himself for his stupidity and lack of a spine, his biggest regret was that when he turned around to leave he would never find out if he was a lousy kisser.

"Naruto… you baka." She said, breathlessly. Their bodies leaning on one another, Ino gripped the hem of his shirt as she stared down at his chest. They were just kids, only eleven and nine, Naruto and Ino respectively, but they knew they would never see each other again.

"I'm leaving, Ino-chan."

"Yeah… hey, Naruto-kun?" Ino mumbled, barely above her breath.

"Yeah?"

"_Shintenshin no Jutsu._"

Naruto's body stiffened and his eyes clamped down shut. When his eyes opened up again, Ino was in control. She saw and felt her own body slump and lean against his chest. She quickly eased her hands underneath her knees and carried herself bridal style into her home. When she opened the door, she checked briefly to see if her parents were in, then walked in and set herself down on the couch. She wouldn't leave a note. It would be in his handwriting and she couldn't risk anyone thinking that Naruto had done anything to her.

She felt a pang of hunger that came from her body so she walked into her kitchen. She grabbed a lunch from the fridge and ate as much of it as she could, and chugged down a few glasses of water before walking out the door. She didn't know how he could function on so much hunger. It was worse than any of the diets she put herself through.

She stepped through the house and head out the front door, grateful that her parents weren't home.

When the door closed behind her, she saw a slight glimmer coming from the brush far away. She swallowed and took a deep breath, then walked directly into the darkness and the golden eyes stalking within it.

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><p>As Sasuke was standing just outside of the Uchiha complex, thinking deeply underneath the awning of an abandoned Konoha Military Police building, he was surprised to see Naruto, always dressed in orange, walking alongside a tall figure in black and holding an umbrella in the heavy rain who draped a hand over his left shoulder. What shocked him even more, was that the larger man was holding the Hokage scroll of sealing that Naruto had carried for the past couple of years, and they were heading straight to the village wall that once seemed to protect them from the outside world. Sasuke started running toward the two, wondering where Naruto was being lead away to, when he came upon the large erected wall just as a hidden door started to slide back into place. Jamming one of his fuuma shuriken into the doorway long enough for him to crouch down underneath the gap and slide in, Sasuke trailed after them, wondering where this passageway lead, and why his old friend was walking with such a conspicuous character.<p>

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><p>tbc<p>

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><p>Added something at the end just before the tbc, so refresh your screens.<p>

What will happen next? How long can Ino masquerade as Naruto, and why would she want to in the first place? And what was Sasuke thinking about, and how will he help his friend?

Anyone fancy to guess? ;)

Luv

Mos


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Three minutes. She counted each second off and after a short walk to the great wall of the village she figured she had about three minutes left. There was no way she could go past three minutes. She'd run out of chakra then. She'd collapse from exhaustion or maybe even die if she tried to push it anymore.

Before Orochimaru opened up a secret entrance to the wall, she noticed that directly behind them was an old mural for the deceased from one of the earlier wars before the last one a little under twenty years ago.

As she and Orochimaru walked through the dark tunnels hidden within the wall of the village, they quickly came to a ramp which lead them straight down several basement levels deep into the ground. When they came out into the open, Ino saw a light at the end, dim and green, with a scent coming from deep within the abyss that reminded her of putrid waste like that of a septic tank.

At that moment, she saw Naruto standing in the middle of the darkness looking away from her with his left arm over his chest as he gripped his other arm with the tips of his fingers.

"Naruto?" Ino ran up to him in her own body and then began to walk around to try and see his face. She must have entered his mind's breadth.

He turned away, his head ducking down low. "No, don't..."

Ino furrowed her brows, but reached up to him and gripped his shoulders gently, pressing into his back to try and console him with _there-there's_ and coos, but the young man only continued to watch his feet and the ground that was obscured by shadows.

At his reluctance, an idea came to her to get Naruto to look at her, but it triggered a memory earlier this month of some time spent together with her father and a story that, whether she knew it or not, would alter her path by a single degree and utterly morph her ultimate destination.

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><p>Three weeks ago, Yamanaka Ino sat together with her father as he showed her the potential of the Shintenshin no jutsu, or the mind-body-transfer technique, and other techniques of their clan. He snatched up the body of a red fox as it crept around their fence, searching for rabbit. Taking control of the small animal without leaving his body, Inoichi brought the fox up close and waved his fingers in front of it. At first it seemed tense and frightened, terribly confused about its current predicament as it had no say as to where it was heading. When it stood before them, as Inoichi poured some chakra into the small fox, it calmed and Ino blushed happily as she reached over and pet it, much to its delight. It mewled and yipped softly in her arms as she picked the small thing up to hold it close before her father took it and set it back down on the floor in front of them.<p>

Afterwards, the young fox circled around the two playfully when her father let it go, no longer controlling the fox, and Ino enjoyed trying to scare it off only for it to return to them and edge in close as if it were going to pounce on them. Its hairs stood up on end on the back of its neck but its fangs were not bared and it pawed at them playfully.

When the fox finally left, ready to head home, the two Yamanakas were about to stand when Inochi suddenly had an interesting story and test for his young daughter. "Ino, Ino, hang on a second. Sit back down, please."

Ino nodded and sat down beside him, smiling with a confused look on her face. "Is there something else we need to go over?"

"Well, now that you see how powerful this advanced jutsu was, I want to just say that you should practice your Shintenshin while you're working your way up to the Shinranshin. Now, I want you to take a good look at this." He turned and reached into his kunai pouch and retrieved a folded sheet. It looked like a mirror shaped like a paper-fan.

Ino took a closer look when he handed the precious looking heirloom to her, and caressed it gently in her slim hands. "It's… a mirror? And a fan? Why? We're not Uchiha."

Inochi smirked, nodding in agreement. "You're quite right about that. No, Ino, we're not Uchiha but our roots are intertwined with theirs… kind of like a pair of plants growing too close!" He said, holding up one finger as he nodded, happy with his metaphor. "For the longest time, the Uchiha and the Senju have been rivals and even bitter enemies, and did very many terrible things to one another."

Ino listened intently, but her eyes were still focused on the glittering light of the beautiful fan in her hands. She couldn't believe he just had it in his kunai pouch, how reckless could a guy be? _Worse off, it's my own dumb dad._ She rolled her eyes at his carelessness.

"When the Shodai founded Konohagakure and gave four particular clans the honorable name "the four pillars" of the village, the wars were starting to die down compared to how vicious and useless they used to be. Battles were still fought daily, even among clans here in Konoha when there were disputes, but the Shodai was a strong leader and Konoha did not see much uprising back then."

"But a long time ago," said Inochi, reaching over and extending his palm outward. Ino placed the mirror back in his grasp and he immediately opened it in front of her and shined the light directly onto her face as it reflected off of the mirror. "A _very long _time ago, when the Uchiha were a travelling group of mercenaries that fought bitterly with their enemies while the Senju settled in various places throughout the shinobi world, the Yamanaka clan became a ward of the Uchiha."

Ino was taken aback. She had no idea that their Yamanaka and Uchiha clans were at once connected long ago. She found herself looking at the glass fan that was made with so many sheets of glass that it folded perfectly and somehow maintained a perfect surface, clear of any scratches. The reflective material almost seemed to be of something much more precious than glass, but it certainly had very similar properties.

"So, we were mercenaries together with them?"

"Yes. Our clan was small compared the Uchiha's, which grew to the tremendous size of nearly a hundred separate families that all travelled together. The Yamanakas were much fewer… there was probably around six or so families and our blood was always mixing and people were often leaving the group to stay in various places, but the few that stayed with the Uchiha were loyal, but relatively weak when compared to their powerful masters."

Ino looked back into the fan and saw her eyes staring back at her, pupil-less and strange. She sometimes felt self conscious about them simply because they were so different from anyone else's. The only other group of people that she could relate to was the Hyuga, and maybe that Yuhi Kurenai who was a new jonin instructor this year.

"So what happened? I know that there's only Sasuke left here in the village, but before the murders how did the Uchiha and the Yamanakas drift apart."

Inochi grinned. "Well, that's another story altogether! But first, let me finish this one and maybe we can move onto that when you understand why I'm showing you this fan."

Ino looked at the fan and nodded slowly. She was curious too, especially because she was so enthralled by it.

"The glass fan is an heirloom that was passed down from Yamanaka to Yamanaka and sometimes not only to one's offspring. It's travelled a long way for it to come to me. I earned it on a mission together with Shikaku and Chouza when I was younger, and my great uncle who was about seventy at the time passed it down to me instead of my older brother or one of his own sons or grandsons."

Ino raised her eyebrows, "So this might have ended up with our cousins who moved to the capitol?"

"Hah, well, probably. But they aren't shinobi, so I might have been able to bargain for it."

Ino rolled her eyes. Her father would, too. "So, anyways, where did this fan come from? And why is it made out of glass?"

Inochi folded up the fan and then flicked his wrist out and opened it up once more in a swift, fluid motion. "The Uchiha often used their eyes for very twisted and devilish things, and as their wards, oftentimes the Yamanakas would feel the brunt of their anger whenever they lost out to the Senju. We had become something akin to slaves for a time, and the violent, particularly morbid ways of the Uchiha left our numbers dwindling."

"But just as it seemed like our own masters and allies were through with us and were ready to be rid of us, the strongest Yamanaka to ever be born became a shinobi."

Ino was quiet, waiting for him to say more.

"So many generations ago. I would have to go get the scroll with our family tree on it to explain just how far it goes back."

"Who was he?"

"She was a woman named Inotsuyoi."

Ino's eyes seemed to sparkle then, much like the glass. "She was… _a woman?_"

Her father smiled. "A very beautiful, darling woman if any of the old stories are to be trusted. And she was known to be very tall and very kind."

"She sounds great… wait, why did such a beautiful woman have to become a shinobi?"

Inoichi arched a brow, smirking. "Well, why are you doing it, pumpkin?"

The young girl blushed, "I… uh. I'm still trying to figure that out, I guess…"

Her father leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Ino, don't ever limit yourself. Yes, you're beautiful… no, gorgeous, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't do something that doesn't "seem to suit you", ok? I'm a grown man and I have very long hair, in a pony-tail no less, and I love gardening... You know how hard it is for a young man to grow up being called the sissy who likes to play with daffodils and sunflowers?"

Ino chuckled, "It does make you sound like a total wuss!"

Her father gave her a playful scowl, "Well, I'm not, you hear! Now, as I was saying, Inotsuyoi, who had developed her Yamanaka abilities and jutsu at a very young age, had become a shinobi and spent most of her time on missions that helped to extend the Uchiha's reach in the land. The Uchiha had even recruited the very large Inuzuka clan at the time and they would go and collect taxes from various settlements, as well as sign contracts to take down particular people or groups. One day though, the Uchiha's strongest warrior confronted Inotsuyoi, who he had only met that same day, and said that he had picked her to marry him. She smiled gracefully and gave him a soft look and told him _'no'_, and it made the Uchiha furious that the lesser of their two wards would dare deny any of their requests."

"When the Uchiha came back to Inotsuyoi and repeated his offer, this time as a harsh demand, she stood up and faced him."

Ino gulped, listening intently as she leaned forward. "Where does the fan come in?"

"I'm getting to that… and so, she stepped up to him and looked down into his eyes and said clearly, _I will not wed you_, and then began to turn away, but immediately afterward he activated his powerful eyes and went in for his attack, intending to kill her if she wouldn't give herself to him."

"What, why?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe the man was mentally imbalanced, although sometimes I felt like a lot of Uchiha were due to their very volatile blood. They haven't changed much since when I was a kid, and I bet that even Sasuke is very much like his old ancestors in that he is very violent and without restraint somewhere deep inside."

"I don't know, he seems pretty level-headed to me for someone who just lost his whole clan overnight."

Inoichi nodded. "Right… I suppose you're right."

He grinned, "Anyways, the Yamanaka _never_ beat the Uchiha's eye. No matter how good they became, that eye always left them in a tight spot. It could capture each of their movements, copy them, anticipate their next ones, and figure out counters before the rest of their bodies could even react. The Uchiha were the strongest clan within the three of their nomadic group because of the higher advantage of their kekkai genkai, though there were often better fighters or sneakier sneaks within the Inuzuka and the Yamanaka."

"But Inotsuyoi developed a powerful ability that since then has not shown up in any other family within the clan since. She never used it offensively, but whenever an Uchiha tried to use his powerful eye genjutsu on her, she was able to trap them in their own technique and then immediately use a variation of shintenshin that would allow her to control the Uchiha's dreams as their own powerful eye techniques forced them to immediately fall asleep. Using him in his dream state, the beautiful Inotsuyoi proposed to the ugliest woman in the Uchiha clan using her would-be suitor's body and even sat through most of the brief wedding ceremony a few weeks later before finally freeing him."

Ino stared on in disbelief. "That is so messed up… so she made him marry a really ugly person?" She started to laugh.

"Well, honestly, ugly Uchihas are few and far in between, but I guess she was more plain than some of the rest of them." Inochi chuckled, "But that's not what is important. Humiliated, the most powerful of the Uchiha at that time and the leader of their clan went into hiding with his blushing bride and fathered several children as a farmer in a small community in the Uchiha's territory."

"Inotsuyoi became known as the woman with no eyes. In fact, it was said that she had only a pair of small mirrors that resembled them, because when an Uchiha looked her in the eye it was always the Uchiha who felt the effects of the clan's powerful _dojutsu_, and never she. Her talents and abilities didn't end there. Becoming a great blacksmith and studying in one of the sacred places under the cobalt tarantula summon's guidance, she made this glass-like mirror out of the tarantula's silk and handed it down to the youngest Yamanaka child that was traveling with the Uchihas at the time_. In fact, a close niece of hers..."_

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><p>When Ino tumbled out of the dream scape and stepped through a narrow doorway behind Orochimaru, she stood and looked up into the glass of a full-sized incubation pod. Confused, she tried to peer inside, but Orochimaru chided her as she possessed the boy's body and told her to keep walking.<p>

When Orochimaru turned around, Ino had just finished the two minute mark and she could feel the incredible drain of her chakra on her system. It felt like her spiritual body was detaching itself from Naruto, but she held on. As she continued to follow him, he suddenly turned and told Naruto to wait there, and stepped through a door on one of the sides of the long hallway. Ino immediately withdrew a kunai from Naruto's kunai pouch, glad he was carrying his with him, and after squashing away any killer intent she might've emitted she turned Naruto's body around before digging the kunai into the skin of his left arm and drawing directions with it using the tip of her knife. All the while, she grit her teeth and lowered her head, trying to ignore the pain as she listed them as specific as possible.

Not sure if it was going to work, Ino's etching on his skin wrought an incredible amount of pain. When she heard footsteps, she stopped and turned her head to look at Orochimaru who glared, seeing the glint of the kunai and the blood dripping from it.

"What are you doing, gaki?" Orochimaru spat, demanding an answer from Naruto.

In Naruto's place, Ino just shook her head, "Nothing."

"Let me see. Turn around."

Ino smirked, turning Naruto's body around and showed him the bleeding arm.

"What the hell is that, paint? Don't fool with me, you ugly little brat."

Ino looked confused and looked down at Naruto's arm, only to see that the directions were no longer there. In fact, there were no cut marks whatsoever.

"Who are _you_ calling ugly. Apparently you spend a lot of time in the mirror."

Orochimaruto turned back around after taking a few steps away and crept up to Ino, glaring at her suspiciously. "You have been speaking strangely ever since you came back... I wonder why that is?"

"You must be a great listener."

The sannin snarled.

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><p>When Inoichi and Oroi stepped into the house, the last thing they expected to see was Ino bleeding on the sofa as lines began appearing mysteriously on her arm. He sent his wife after some bandages, a cloth and some disinfectant while he pulled his shirt up to wipe away the blood and get a good look of the map which was drawn to lead him to her.<p>

After memorizing the map, he immediately ran outside when Oroi returned and left her to tend for their daughter while he ran as fast as he could to the Hokage's office to inform their leader of the word written at the very bottom in very large print: _**Orochimaru**._

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><p>tbc<p>

**Author: **Thanks for reading. Review if you liked it! If I get enough reviews, I may make changes to the story or cover more about a particular part of it that might not be given enough time normally. Just let me know, and Happy Easter!

luv

Mos


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

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><p><strong>Author: <strong>Hey. My slow update was because I'm setting up some stuff for my new apartment and university. Thank you all for reviewing the previous chapters and for favorite-ing either me, my story, or adding me to your alert list. It shows you care :p

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><p>The lights flickered on above her head and a hanging lamp swung back and forth in the darkness. Its light gnawed at the inky surroundings but drowned pathetically in the overwhelming shadow that loomed in the room with them. Ino was counting the seconds after the third minute. She was scratching the skin of his hands, fidgeting in his shoes as she felt that familiar steep drain of her chakra hit her as hard as any punch she's ever taken. She felt as if her body was filling up, but at the same time, her blood seemed to grow cold due the lack of her inner ether. It was an odd feeling, knowing the sensations of two different bodies at once due to the chakra exhaustion.<p>

When Orochimaru finally stopped, he turned and grinned at the young boy and leaned in close to look Naruto directly in the eye. "I am excited, thrilled, really. I think you will make the perfect bait. You're so scruffy and arrogant-looking. They'll just _loathe_ you." Orochimaru let out a self-satisfied smirk as he walked around the young boy, looking down into his blue eyes when they were visible for him.

"My scroll." Naruto's lips moved. Ino groaned and was about ready to give up when she saw Naruto look up in his mind's eye and gaze into the mirror that she held out in front of him while his back was turned to her. She looked back through the mirror to see his eyes full of purpose. Resolve. Ino's breath hitched and suddenly she was no longer in control, though she could still see through his eyes and hear the silent footsteps of the Sannin as he stalked about.

Naruto, who had regained the reigns, glared up at Orochimaru and the man stopped, his eyes opening just a hair's breadth wider. "You're back. I remember that glare from a few minutes ago… I wonder; were you in a daze because of your fear? Caught up in it like a web that won't let you go, hanging, suspended, as you wondered when the spider would come crawling back around, starved and thirsty."

"No animal has ever scared me." Naruto said in a poisonous tone.

Orochimaru grinned. "Oh? So, how do you feel about ss-s-snakes-s?" And just as he said it, he extended his arms out and reached for the boy. When Naruto looked up at him and his palms simply set down on his shoulders, he frowned at the older man.

"Some people make belts out of their skins. Now get your hands off of me, and return what is rightfully mine."

His pale face leaned in close and his eyes were gazing into Naruto's. "I suppose I can do that."

"It _was_ collateral. And from what I heard, you are legendary. A Sannin… I'm not sure why I know, I didn't really pay attention in school half the time, but I guess I got it from somewhere."

Orochimaru raised a brow and pulled back slightly, but his hands were still clutching the young boy's shoulders.

"I think it would be pretty pathetic, even for a bastard like you, to break your word." Naruto's eyes peered from underneath his long eyelashes up to the tall man; his brow creased heavily as the look of contempt he wore was instantly recognizable on him.

Orochimaru smirked. _He even has his eyes. And yet he is so much like __**her**__._

"Very well. I will not renege on our agreement." The Sannin swung the large scroll out from his side where it was kept and held it out to the young blond as if it was no more cumbersome than a single chopstick. Orochimaru's fierce strength was utterly undeniable. He possessed more than any other single man that Naruto had ever seen; even more than an Akimichi.

He reached out and took the scroll, then nodded his head once politely. "Thank you."

Baffled, Orochimaru stayed silent. _What a remarkable boy._

The two walked while Ino watched. She felt her life force slowly slipping away and could hear her mother screaming at her, she was wailing for her to let go of the jutsu but she just couldn't. Even if she wanted to, she knew she would stay for as long as it took; she just wanted to make sure that Naruto would be found, hopefully, by the Hokage because she knew that the first thing her father would do would be to inform the Hokage and ask him for his assistance. Then they would embark as a task force including probably Kakashi, her father, and one other jonin with the Hokage as its commander.

When Naruto placed the scroll on his back once more, Orochimaru smirked and the two continued to walk. Just then, Naruto heard a silent whirring sound as something seemed to be moving quickly through the air. Orochimaru spun around on his heel with wide eyes as a windmill buzzed over the top of Naruto's head, trimming a hair before slicing through six-foot-tall man's abdomen.

Naruto recoiled at the gore as the Sannin's body was split in two by the spinning windmill shuriken. When he saw it bouncing off of the wall a little further up, Naruto ducked and turned around immediately with his kunai drawn. It nearly fell from his hand as he turned to watch as Sasuke reached up into the air and snagged it as it spun towards him.

The two of them looked at one another and Naruto's eyes were wide open as he tried to comprehend what had just happened. _Did he just kill that living legend?_ There was a glimmer of red in Sasuke's eyes that Naruto wasn't quite sure he just saw.

"Sa-Sasuke? What the hell! How were you able to find me!"

Sasuke smirked. "Your smell, for one. You smell like dead last."

Naruto grinned, "Idiot. I smell like spring flowers and morning dew and you know it."

The Uchiha boy grunted and tilted his head. "Let's leave."

"No shit."

When Naruto took a step forward he tripped due to something moving along the floor. Sasuke looked confused, but immediately his confusion disappeared from his face when he heard the hissing of snakes in the darkness.

"_Naruto! __**Move! Now!**_"

Sasuke formed eight seals, ending with tiger and brought his hand up to his mouth as he took a deep breath. Seeing this, Naruto immediately pulled himself up to his feet and moved out of the way as a giant flame burst out of the Uchiha's chest and swirled out of his mouth in a spiral that covered the entire hallway just as Naruto cleared the ten or so feet away from where he had fallen.

When they looked, they saw snakes. Hundreds and hundreds of snakes slithering around the hallway, creeping up on them even as the flames licked at their leathery flesh.

"Run!" Naruto made sure he secured the giant scroll tight and pushed Sasuke in the other direction as the snakes were devoured by the flame only for more to pour out behind it and make their way past until they, in return, consumed the flame. Naruto would praise Sasuke for his mastery of one of his family's signature techniques, but the last thing on their mind was approval from one another.

Sasuke's eyes glimmered red just then and Naruto jerked away when it happened, but as they were running Sasuke frowned. "What are you doing with Ino's chakra? It's weird though, not just her chakra, but something else…"

"Ino? She's still inside me! Oh shit, how long has it been?"

Naruto was dense, not stupid. He knew that maintaining any jutsu, even one like henge, for very long periods of time had the potential to do real damage to a person's chakra pathways and even cause brain damage or death. As they ran down the long hall, Naruto immediately began yelling. "Ino, let go, damn it! You did your part! I'm sure someone's on their way now, so get the hell out of my head _before_ you kill yourself!"

Sasuke looked at him like he was stupid, but they kept running. They were close, Naruto was watching the staircase the whole way as they ran at full speed.

Both of them turned back to look and were shocked to see that there were no longer any snakes chasing them. Sasuke stopped, shocking Naruto even further, making him stop to grab the Uchiha and get him to start running again. "What the hell are you doing?"

Sasuke scowled, "He's in front of us."

"Bull-oh fuck!" Naruto slapped his mouth over the top of his head as he saw the snake Sannin was now standing in front of them when they turned around.

Orochimaru gave a terrorizing smile and reached up to grip the skin underneath his eye and pull it back slightly, showing off his yellowish, snakelike eye. The two boys felt like kunai were digging into their bodies as if thrown from all possible angles, with one very last one going directly through their forehead protectors and splitting their skulls open.

The two young boys fell to their knees as the wave of killer intent washed over them, crippling their knees and making their arms weak, barely able to stand the weight of their own torso as they tried to keep from planting their skulls into the ground.

When Orochimaru walked up to them, they couldn't even bring themselves to look up at him. Their bodies were that badly affected by the mere aura of death that travelled with the Sannin.

"An Uchiha with a sharingan. I must have left lady luck with quite the impression last night." Orochimaru sneered at the Uchiha boy and turned his head. "But if you can't survive, I might as well not even bother. Maybe you're not worth it after all… I suppose I'll have to bide my time until I come across Itachi again."

Sasuke's foundation nearly crumbled. He shook violently as he looked up with terrible hate into the Sannin's eyes. Naruto turned to look and felt a pull of chakra as Orochimaru started forming a few seals, many that neither of the boys had ever seen. When his head suddenly shot up and his neck extended as he reached out with it seemingly to clamp down on the Uchiha's shoulder, Naruto stiffened. He felt another pull of chakra and two arms wrapped around him, but he couldn't see them. And just like that, the feeling was gone, but the strength that it spawned within him remained.

Suddenly his legs were working again and Naruto picked himself up and had a kunai down the Sannin's throat, stabbing through the back of his neck with it as his jaws surrounded the blond's arm and he gagged on his own blood. Sasuke drew back in surprise and immediately moved to push his own kunai into the Sannin's chest, forcing him back a few steps before his hand reached out and shoved him away, making him slide on his back several meters down the hall. Orochimaru was snarling, spitting out blood and coughing as mucous poured out of his nose as he tried to pull his head away from him. Naruto swerved his head out of the way as he threw another of his massive punches and slipped it underneath the monster's chin, turning the wrist in his mouth to force the Sannin to turn his head as he took Sasuke's kunai that was in his chest and pulled down on it with his other hand until a good portion of his abdomen was cleaved and Naruto could see the fleshy innards.

Orochimaru, in the meantime, tried to bite Naruto's arm off, but the kunai was stuck just right that it forced the Sannin to just try and shake away from it. How the man wasn't dead already, Naruto couldn't fathom. He yanked Sasuke's kunai out of the shinobi's gut and jabbed it back in to where he thought his heart was, but he bounced off of a rib and spun away from Naruto's hand only succeeding in leaving a gash in his skin because Naruto lacked the force required to break through this particular man's ribcage.

Suddenly, Orochimaru kicked at him and scored a particularly gruesome strike on Naruto's chest, shoving him backwards even further than he had Sasuke. He reached into his throat and yanked roughly on the knife jutting out over his tongue. Once that was removed, he wheezed desperately for air as he clutched his throat, glaring at the two young shinobi that had caught him off guard.

Sasuke, still on the high coming from the increased endorphins at the despicable memory of his older brother, dashed across the ten or so yards in between them and threw out several shuriken each missing their target even though he didn't move.

Orochimaru looked around and noticed that wires were attached to the shuriken that struck both of the walls and the floor and ceiling as well. Arching a brow, he grunted when the wires were pulled taut squeezing him tight in the middle of the hallway.

Sasuke smirked even as Orochimaru spat out blood on the floor, glaring back at the young Uchiha.

Naruto stood up to watch as the Sannin was burnt to a crisp in the center of the hall and blinked. He wasn't sure that he and Sasuke were even equals anymore.

However, to Naruto's dismay, an elbow slammed into the side of his head, making him hit the wall nearby and fall over, clutching his face. Sasuke spun around and shot out several small fireballs as his chakra reserves were beginning to get low; the corpse behind him melted into a muddy statue that simply tumbled over and splattered on the ground where the bloody spit was missing.

Sasuke's eyes were able to follow, but his body could not keep up. Every time he seemed to get the upper hand on the Sannin, he would simply pick up his pace and rush at him again. He was _toying_ with them. They wouldn't stand a chance even ten years from now.

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><p>Naruto lay on his side, looking up after another failed attempt at trying to fight off the legendary shinobi. Ino was gone now, he knew it. Those were her arms that had wrapped around him and they allowed him to stop the Sannin's attempt to, as Naruto saw it, kill Sasuke.<p>

He watched helplessly as Sasuke was lifted up by his chin and pressed up against the wall as Orochimaru hissed, "The wretched pain like your insides liquefying will only last a few days… and then you will either die… or become much, _much _stronger… and _ascend._"

There weren't very many moments in Naruto's life that lasted forever. That expression was often lost on him, because most of his life was a blur. But when he saw Orochimaru clamping down on Sasuke's throat, the Hokage, Kakashi and Inoichi rushing down the steps as Naruto saw Sasuke's jugular moving as blood traveled up from his chest, Naruto wished he had just been knocked out after being slammed into the concrete wall for the fifth or sixth time.

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><p>Ino lay in a hospital bed, an oxygen mask over her face as several nurses moved back and forth to follow the commands of their specialized Hyuga doctor as he tried to assess the damage done to her chakra pathways while a medic shinobi worked diligently on crafting a powerful seal in an empty room that was used for chakra poisoning.<p>

Ino's mother, Oroi, sat in the waiting room, crying with her face in her hands as a nurse tried to console her.

In Ino's mind, she saw the fan. She saw the glass shimmering in the darkness and walked up to it. When she took it, she looked upon the majestic creator of the silk fan and gasped.

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><p>Like? Review. Love? <em>Gasp!<em> Review again!

_**$:3p**_


	9. Chapter 9

**Author: **Thank you for reading. I really appreciate all of the feedback and can you believe it got 3000+ hits in one day! Another 700 or so on the second! Hah.

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><p>At her home, Anko sat on the edge of her bed staring at a glass of lukewarm water sitting on her nightstand. She couldn't bring herself to drink from it; instead, she reached back with her palm and gripped her shoulder as the pulsating feeling that she had missed for years was now returning.<p>

She turned her head and looked out one of the windows in her room, not sure what the feeling of dread that accompanied her meant.

It took her a few minutes, but she stood up and left her quaint apartment after grabbing her trench coat. When she closed the door behind her, she leapt up onto the rooftops and started to run along them, trying to bite away the feeling with the cold night air.

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><p>Sasuke's body hit the ground with a thud worth a few shivers. He was sprawled out on the ground with his eyes rolled to the back of his head as the mind-consuming poison made its way into his body and began creeping up to his brain.<p>

Naruto still lay on his side, bloody and battered. He was glad to see the Hokage and his backup, but things just didn't look good for him with Orochimaru standing in between him and the Hokage. He was scared. Terrified. If he had a tail, it would be in between his legs… but Ino was there at the time. He couldn't show how scared he was of the Sannin; even while she occupied his body. No, not in front of her. He hardly had enough training to fight off another genin, much less one of the legendary three of Konoha.

Naruto looked over to see Sasuke was unconscious. He himself was bruised and battered all over. The side of his head was a dark purple for a few minutes, but eventually his body began to heal itself as it had rapidly before when Ino drew the map to the hidden entrance. Naruto was starting to look like he had never participated in the fight of his short life while Sasuke just seemed to look worse and worse as the bruises began to swell on his face and body.

When the Hokage stopped only a few meters away from Orochimaru, the snake Sannin turned to face the trio as Kakashi and Inoichi rounded out the rest of the group. He grinned; Sarutobi presented him with a disappointed frown.

"Sarutobi-sensei. _Ku-kuh-huh… _You have aged considerably well, _sensei_." Orochimaru's callousness and the mockery in his supposed show of respect by calling his old teacher "sensei" did not go unnoticed. His tongue-on-palate kind of laugh gave a coarse and slightly nasal sound, eerie as his smile and intimidating as his eyes.

The Hokage slowly removed his Hokage hat and set it on the ground beside him. "You haven't aged a day." He closed his eyes for a second as he gathered the strength within himself to speak to his former student. "Tell me; have you still no remorse for your actions? The guilt of your treachery to your village and mankind as a whole must be weighing down your shoulders; I myself have killed many men and… even women and children in my lifetime, and _I know_," the disentangling look in his eyes and the direct eye contact he kept with his pupil once his eyes opened showed Sarutobi is as a shinobi, a man, and a mentor, all in one go; his lips parted and he was about to speak again, but he bit his lips once before glaring sharply at his pupil and bitingly he continued, "Better than some, of the toll that these kind of needless bloodlettings can have on your soul."

Orochimaru's Machiavellian smile graced his features pointedly. "Ha ha ha. Sensei. How old and bitter this life has made you; as for me, I have no reason to concern myself with frivolities like death. To me, Death is dead."

The Hokage lowered his head slightly and glared at his student from underneath his brow. He felt his body tensing up underneath his formal robes and knew he couldn't continue to speak with this monster any longer. What hurt him the most wasn't that Orochimaru was the demon that he was; but, that Hiruzen himself was the cause of his pupil's scandalous affair with lunacy.

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at the floor where Sasuke lay beside his pupil before his eyes scanned the room further back in the darkness and saw the dull orange color of Naruto's jacket mixed with splotches of blood making his crumpled heap resemble a pile of orange and red leaves in the fall.

His eyes slowly moved back to Orochimaru and his presence here suddenly made complete sense. "You are here for Naruto. Who did you plan on striking a bargain with? Suna? Kumo? I suppose it would have to be Iwa."

Orochimaru sneered, looking at the Hokage with playfully sinister eyes. "Mizu."

Kakashi was taken aback, speaking out while the Hokage simply chewed the informative meal that was given to him, gnawing on what Mizu could possibly want with the Yondaime's only son. "But," began Kakashi, "Mizu is the weakest of the five great military powers; at least, their numbers and lack of talent after the seven swordsmen were disbanded makes them the weakest threat to Konoha as of today."

Inoichi thought it was foolish of Kakashi to give Orochimaru any ideas of how to better plot the destruction of Konoha, but he had to concede that the jonin had a point: Mizu was most definitely the weakest due to the fact that many of the seven swordsmen had either died, or became missing nin. Two of them supposedly tried to overthrow the government and assassinate their kage, which had shocked the Konoha elite when news arrived from their spies in the Land of Water.

"Your statement speaks to your inexperience, _Kakashi-kun_." He said affectionately, his tongue peeking out of his mouth to lick his lower lip. Orochimaru circled around Sasuke and knelt down behind him, gripping the young boy by his shoulder and pulling on his unconscious body to prop him up in front as an example. "When seeking for the perfect underling, you search for any of _the three ones_:" Orochimaru held up his hand and began to count them off, "you find the stupid ones, _the ones who have no one_, and the ones who are different. By seeking out these poor lost souls, you can build an army willing to die for you or your cause without any hesitance; without that useless instinct for self-preservation."

He looked down at Sasuke for a second with furrowed brows. "The seven swordsmen weren't any of those three. They were all smart, each from powerful clans, and each of them was the same in that they were powerful with a sword, and even more powerful together... but power in numbers can sometimes be dangerous for a ruling government... and sometimes it's better for your people to be stupid for things to smoothly..." Orochimaru released the boy and allowed him to hit the ground lifeless.

"You sick bastard… these are children. You can't convince grown adults to follow your ideals so you twist and contort poor kids like these to do your bidding? Damn you!" Inoichi's anger and growing concern for the well-being of his daughter got the best of him and he nearly made it half the distance between him and Orochimaru when the Hokage appeared before him in full battle attire and held an arm out to stop the younger blond shinobi.

"That will be enough Inoichi. You are here as my support since you know some medic jutsu and because of your extensive knowledge in different kinds of toxins and poisons. Kakashi is here to help me round out this fight, but neither of you are to interfere unless I ask for your assistance."

"Hokage-sama-"

"_Do I make myself clear?_" shouted Sarutobi, glaring at Orochimaru, though he was upset about his subordinate's outburst.

"You see, sensei? Smart underlings are no good. They only speak out against you and revolt against your wishes and desires."

"Orochimaru, your statement speaks to your inexperience. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain will follow. You are right in that sometimes it may be easier to have a mindless pawn carry out your will, but by outright denying your subordinates their ability to think and act for themselves, you are inviting weakness and instability in your ranks. One very important reason why Konoha has always been one of the strongest villages in our world is because of our will of fire. I hoped, long ago, to instill that passion in your heart, but what I failed to realize was that you cut it out and hid it away somewhere I would never find it."

Orochimaru and the Hokage stared at one another. To anyone else, it was the Legendary Sannin, Lord Orochimaru staring down _the Professor_, the _shinobi god_ Sarutobi Hiruzen. To the two of them, it was a master and his pupil reliving a moment more than thirty years old where somewhere they may have felt that everything could possibly be different. Sarutobi smiled when he saw the much younger prodigious Orochimaru looking up at him with vexing eyes; golden eyes with the purple markings of a snake summoner.

_Sensei… your idea worked for my new jutsu sensei! I tried molding my chakra the way you told me and it worked!_

"Sarutobi-sensei. _Ku kuh huh_. You talk far too much for an old man. If Konoha is so strong, then why is that their ancient leader who can barely walk has to take the reins from a boy who simply couldn't handle his position? Bad decisions, I suppose. Now had you only made me Hokage…"

"Had I made you Hokage, the village would no longer be standing. You became too engrossed with the death of your parents, Orochimaru. It has driven you so far, and my failure to react has caused you to be like this… _and it will not happen again!"_

Suddenly, the Hokage formed twenty seals in rapid succession, ending his chakra molding by clamping his hands flat against one another in front of his face and biting both of his protruding thumbs at once, drawing blood from each of them. Orochimaru himself leered, tongue hanging out wildly as he kept up the pace the Hokage set and quickly formed his own seals and then biting one of his thumbs and turning his body to spit his blood out behind Naruto to summon a giant snake in the middle of the small hallway.

Kakashi was shocked when a gargantuan snake that could barely fit within the walls of the hidden remains of Orochimaru's former laboratory thrashed about wildly. He then formed several seals and then immediately brought his hand to his side as a crackling much like electricity sounded in the room.

Inoichi formed his own seals and prepared to use his mind controlling jutsu on the animal in hopes of getting it to reverse summon itself.

The Hokage pressed both his bloody palms into the ground and a large cloud of smoke began to appear in the middle of the room.

Just then, the giant snake lurched forward and swallowed up Naruto, Sasuke and Orochimaru before diving straight down into the ground in front of the Hokage and his subordinates, tunneling through the ground with ease in order to escape. In a rush, the Hokage and the elder Monkey King Enma dived down feet first into the giant tunnel made by the snake and followed closely behind it. Enma, angry as hell that he was summoned and expected to just get into the whole situation without so much as introducing himself gave the Hokage a furious glare as the mane on his head shook.

Kakashi came in quickly behind him with Inochi trailing him at a slower, but no less desperate pace.

When the snake suddenly turned in the ground and shot straight back up, the Hokage had to pause for a second to reposition himself. However, when he turned the corner he saw that there was now a fork and there were now two freshly-dug tunnels leading in two very different directions.

When Kakashi caught up, the Professor pointed at one and yelled, "If you and Inoichi meet him first, I want you to let me know. Do not engage him!" The powerful old Hokage then took the other route and dashed down the long tunnel intent to catch up to his wicked pupil.

Kakashi sighed and looked at Inoichi who just caught up, "Come on, this way!"

He nodded and the two of them ran down the other tunnel as the sounds of burrowing echoed heavily in the distance.

When Naruto woke up, Orochimaru grinned and stood upright, turning around to face the man who caught up with him.

"You have gotten faster,"

Naruto's eyes went wide.

"_Kakashi-kun…..."_

The crackling like thousands of chirping birds couldn't drown out the sound of the creaking bones in Kakashi's body when he saw the predatory eyes of the man in front of him, offering him a lifeless, hopeless smile when the jonin looked upon the man who was once his idol and one of the few people Kakashi truly respected the most.

"I wonder if your chirping birds have gotten far from their mother yet? Perhaps this snake should pay a little visit to the nest and see how the hatchlings are coming along."

Inoichi ran into the area where Kakashi's chakra was visible in the pitch black of the tunnels. When he saw the two golden eyes shining in the background he cursed.

"Oh, _shit_."

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><p><em><strong>Warning: <strong>_**Ranting ensues.**

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><p><strong>Author's note with spoiler for mangaanime for those who haven't seen or read as far as Shippuden up to the new war arc:** This is a very important part to the story that will set up the next series of chapters and the story as a whole. As far as Orochimaru being chosen as the villain, I assure you it wasn't an accident. The man has charisma, even if he is a scary bastard and there are certain dastardly things that are implied by his character. I haven't seen a better villain in an anime/manga series in a long time, and I think his weak death as a plot device for Sasuke's "measure-of-growth" was not done correctly. In fact, I'm hoping that Kabuto will eventually be overcome by Orochimaru's will (because he's such a big pansy, what's with that pathetic backstory? I don't want another Pein, damn it!) which cannot be done in by death, after all, he is _immortal_… well, that's what I believe. I touched on the subject of Orochimaru's chance at being _normal_ and _good_ in this chapter by having the Hokage reminisce and talk about the values he tried to instill in Orochimaru when he was a boy, but I just want to make one thing clear in this story: Orochimaru is pure, honest evil. If I have not convinced you yet, then just know that he _**will**_ be the epitome of it by the end of this story.

Thank you for your reviews, and you too anon who I can't reply to except in the text. Wouldn't you rather make an account or sign into it so that you can favorite me? :) I'll be your friend.

Also, I'm a dork. I listen to and watch AMV's, and you might too, so let's be dorky together! I can't find very many decent AMV's on youtube about him. Anyone want to post me or pm me a link to a good one or one you've made about Orochimaru? I prefer serious ones with songs that actually fit him just a little bit. And it's such a pain to find anything with his voice in it. No one seems to think it's worth noting in their videos except one that I found on yahoo over a DevilMayCry song.

Thank you for reading and for your reviews, favorites, alerts and hits! I'll get back to you guys after my exams!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

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><p>A pair of milky-white crystal eyes appeared in the darkness before her. She shivered as the considering gaze seemed to turn her into glass; Ino felt transparent, see-through in all ways possible: from the consistency of her flesh which became a grand window to a building, the building being her inner self and everything that came with it, from the intentions most important that she composed softly to the drumming and beating of her heart, to her hopes and dreams that were seen to their finality with a single glance of those crystalline eyes.<p>

She heard a ringing sound coming from the background. She wasn't sure what it was, but it was muted and distant, though consistent. The darkness in the background cleared away as if the colored wallpaper that held it up before her suddenly disappeared, somehow leaving the ink behind. When the darkness turned into an onyx colored rock, it began building itself up around either side of her, eventually forming a cave. The eyes were gone, but Ino could see a soft light reaching out, calling to her from somewhere deep in the abyss.

Her bare feet carried her boldly forward. She couldn't reason why it was so easy for her to move forward, but she felt as if she had visited this place once before.

There were lights hung up on either side of her; small candles made out of a wax that gleamed like light shining through blue amber. As she passed the candles went out, covering the place where her passage began with darkness once more.

When she reached the end of the tunnel, she was surprised to see that there was only a tiny gap where the light peeked out from. The light somehow bounced around the room in a ridiculous pattern before her; its shape was an exact resemblance of a spider's web. Upon closer inspection, Ino could see that the beam of light breaking through the tiny gap was reflected off the special amber-like wax candles that were placed strategically around the end of the cave.

Following the light, she saw there were candles hanging from the ceiling using bronze plates. The more she looked at the light; however, the more she noticed there was something wrong with it… something about the spider web was off.

Looking just underneath the break in the wall, she saw that one of the candles was sitting on its side. Ino was surprised to see that its wick was still lit.

She leaned close and reached out with her palm, stepping into the light. When she fixed the candle upright once again the spiraling web completed above her.

And then the light vanished along with the flames of each of the amber candles. Ino blinked, confused.

"Where did it go?" She asked aloud. Her eyes peered through the crack in the wall where the light was shining through before, but she saw only darkness.

The ground below her began to quake, rumbling like the belly of a hippopotamus. When she looked down, she saw what she had failed to notice earlier: the ground was covered in spider silk.

_You smell quite delectable._

Ino could hear the soft, feminine voice reverberate from below her in the ground. The soil there was very soft-looking, as if it had been freshly dug out and poured back in. She took a step back, scared suddenly for her wellbeing.

_Do not fright, child. You are here only in spirit. Your physical form is not with us at the moment._

Ino furrowed her brow, confused. "But you said _smell_, what did you mean by that?"

The soft chuckle that sounded made Ino's hair on the back of her neck stand on end; or at least, she felt like it was.

_Your chakra my darling; It smells very good. It reminds me of a sweet-smelling flower that I was given long ago._

Ino looked around, slightly apprehensive while ignoring her comment about the flower for the time being. "Where are you?"

_Irrelevant. I require some assistance from you girl._

"What do you want?"

There was another laugh.

_You are the young woman who possesses my fan, are you not? Oh, how silly of me; the only way for you to visit me as you are now is because you have the fan… Child, I want it back. It has been so long since I have seen my true reflection, and only the fan can reveal what I want to see._

Ino reached into her pocket and pulled out the silk fan. She didn't feel like chakra. She felt every breath and movement, her blood bubbling in the veins of her neck as she gasped for air when the beauty in her hand delivered a ray of light so glamorous and amazing that she was short of breath. "You can't have it… it's mine now, whoever you are."

The room was silent for a moment. Ino took another step back and held the fan close to her chest. "It was given to me… passed down to me by my father. It's very important to me now, I'm sorry."

_I is your name, child?_

"Ino. What is yours?"

_Inotsuyoi._

Ino froze in place, her heart missing a beat.

"Inotsuyoi…? Yamanaka Inotsuyoi!"

After a brief pause, the voice sounded out once again. _That is right, Ino. And you, you are also of Yamanaka descent?_

"Yes."

_Hum… so you know me. Tell me, what stories have you heard?_

Ino counted back the story of Inotsuyoi and her would-be Uchiha suitor. From time to time she received a chuckle or an approving hum coming from the voice of the legendary Yamanaka kunoichi. After Ino was done telling the story, she waited patiently for her ancestor to speak. She didn't have to wait very long, but the voice carried a slightly different tone now though Ino couldn't quite pinpoint just how it was different.

_Ino. You seem like a very competent young woman; I'd like to ask a favor of you._

"I'm not giving you the fan."

_No, no. I understand, darling; truly, I do! I am dying my sweet-smelling girl… I would like that my memory and legacy be passed on to the next willing… and deserving Yamanaka._

Ino's breath hitched as she looked around the room again, wanting to glimpse at the woman whose beauty was legendary. "_Me?_"

_Yes. You._

Ino bit her lip and nodded slowly, whispering back, "What will you have me do?"

There was a laugh at that, but quickly the honey-soaked voice recovered and hummed tantalizingly in Ino's ear as if the extraordinary beauty was standing directly beside her.

_The Yamanaka family scroll is required for what I am about to teach you. You will also need a blank scroll. When you sleep tonight, simply call my name and I will bring you back to me._

Ino whispered a _yes_, and when she blinked she found herself lying in a hospital bed and shot up immediately gasping for air.

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><p>"Naruto, are you ok?" Kakashi yelled out to the young shinobi, his voice nearly drowned out by the shrill cry of the smaller chidori that he maintained in his right palm.<p>

Screaming back, his face an inch off the ground as she screwed his eyes shut from the thrashing pain at his sides. "Kakashi-sensei. Run! Run away! He's too strong!" He could feel his right hand shaking, making it hard for him to even reach for another kunai after the complete bashing that he just took at the hands of the snake summoner.

Kakashi furrowed his brow, surprised that Naruto could tell. Anyone must have been strong to him, but for him to imply as he did that he stood no chance against the snake sannin meant that he had great awareness regarding an opponent's ability.

"I won't, Naruto!"

Orochimaru smiled. "Clever. Mask your fear with foolhardiness."

"Go to hell." Inoichi said with a snarl, his eyes narrowed hatefully.

Standing in an easy stance with his hips jutted outward just slightly as he leaned his upper body back, the very image of self-confidence, the sannin spoke out with a smirk, "I believe we have only spoken scarcely; why do you hate me so? And by the way, how did you find me? Or was it the Hokage that did?"

Before Kakashi could intervene and tell Inoichi to shut up, his pride got the better of him, "It was my daughter. My little girl was clever enough to use the shintenshin on Naruto-kun and she drew us a map that led us here.

"Hah! Quite clever of her indeed; and to think the reason why she was able to do so was because I honored this boy's bargain to spare her life."

Inoichi's eyes widened first, but it was Kakashi who spoke out. "Well done, Naruto."

Naruto shook his head but said nothing. He didn't want the praise right now.

None of them heard the light shuffling as a figure moved about freely and swiftly in the darkness.

"Kakashi-kun, you know very well that you are no rival of mine. If you get down on your knees and beg me to spare your life, I may, but the father must pay for the sins of the daughter." With that, Orochimaru burst out at full-speed after Inoichi, passing by Kakashi who tried to intercept after quickly pulling aside his headband and activating his sharingan eye just a split-second too late.

The first strike missed, much to Inoichi and Orochimaru's surprise. The culprit: a young boy with dark hair and a devilish hue enveloping him like a flame.

Sasuke reached up and jabbed Orochimaru's elbow upwards, breaking it with ease before kicking him in the stomach and forcing him to redirect his assault elsewhere.

When Orochimaru came back to strike at Kakashi, the copycat ninja was ready with his chidori which easily pierced through the sannin's chest, killing him.

But when his body turned into mud and the look of horror on his face changed into one of uncontrollable laughter, Kakashi swiped his arm away from the cavity that was left in the replacement's chest and turned around immediately to block an incoming downward punch with the arm that was broken just a couple of seconds ago.

Inoichi came in to intercept the follow up attack after Kakashi's guard was broken with the first and successfully fought away the sannin as Kakashi threw several shuriken his way to try and catch the powerful ninja off his guard. To no one's surprise, the sannin easily maneuvered away and crouched in low before the two younger jonin shinobi and struck each of them with a rising palm to each of their respective chins.

Kakashi landed on one knee while Inoichi landed on his back, but the two of them immediately dodged an incoming missile projectile as Orochimaru seemed to be shooting his tongue out of his mouth at rapid speeds.

"What the hell is he? A snake or an iguana?" Inoichi yelled, cursing Orochimaru as he dodged another strike of his dangerous tongue.

"Neither, he's a **worm**!" And with that, Kakashi impaled the tongue that shot past him as he dodged, staking it down into the ground with his kunai just as Sasuke rushed forward and kneed the old man in the nose, cracking it and drawing blood from his nose and mouth.

Naruto stood up then and forming nearly ten hand seals he shot out a burst of fire to the sannin's back, forcing the powerful shinobi to his knees.

"We've got him!" Inoichi exclaimed cheerfully.

"Not so fast! Move!" Kakashi grabbed both Inoichi and Sasuke by their collars and threw them out of the way as the giant snake that was sitting still for a moment behind Naruto suddenly dashed toward them and gobbled up Naruto, Kakashi and the beaten down Orochimaru.

Naruto rolled about in the mouth of the giant snake as Kakashi and Orochimaru began battling again the darkness, clashing kunai against one another even while the snake moved about, expanding the walls to allow it to turn around and chase down the two who survived the unabashed attempt to fill its gullet. He reached into his kunai pouch to retrieve a knife so he could try and escape, but he ended up dropping the first one he reached for, making him retract his shaking hand as he held it against his stomach in surprise.

Outside of the snake's mouth, Sasuke dashed straight at the snake and punched it as hard as he could on its nose, forcing it to a stop. He was delighting in his newfound power, this unholy strength that seemed to have no limit and no beginning, because belonged to him and yet it didn't. It was as if divine intervention caused the snake to stop, because Sasuke knew that this particular scenario could never physically take place in his real world.

Inoichi, shocked but quick on his toes regardless, ran ahead past Sasuke who had taken a few steps back and immediately tied down the mouth of the snake, drawing a disapproving frown from Sasuke.

"That's their only exit." He said, confused, but with no intention of stopping him as a killer headache was starting to come along.

"Not for long." Grinned the mischievous blond as he held up a roll of explosive tags.

"Oh shit!"

Without hesitation, Inoichi leapt up over the snake's down head and slid down its side after tying one end of the roll to a set of kunai and letting it drop on the other side while he was on top. He then jabbed the other end into the snake using a kunai that was tied to the string on the end and activated the chakra necessary to set off the tags.

Inoichi and Sasuke ran away as the explosion went off, blowing its body into halves as if a garden snake had just had a firecracker tied to its belly.*

The summoned snake died, its carcass just lying there as it didn't have a chance to reverse-summon itself away. From the exploded end came Naruto rolling out onto his back with his legs swinging upward as he hit the ground with a heavy thud and a miserable groan. Immediately afterward, Kakashi jumped out backwards, spinning in mid air before landing on the ceiling upside down while he began forming enough seals to create the Raikiri, a much more powerful version of the Chidori that sounded more like an eagle crying as it swooped down for the kill.

Orochimaru burst out and formed his own seals as Kakashi's jutsu came to life, leaving the other three deaf from the loud cry within the tunnels.

Running along the ceiling, upside down as he dragged along his Raikiri above him, Kakashi pinpointed where Orochimaru was and screamed aloud as he jumped down off of the ceiling of the tunnel and dove straight for the legendary sannin, intending to cut into him with his assassination technique.

"Kakashi-kun, won't you learn not to be so fashionably late?" Orochimaru smirked and took a long leap backwards as he formed the rabbit and dog seals three times consecutively before ending with the ox seal. Once he landed, Orochimaru stamped his foot into the ground, making the floor and ceiling rise and fall at the same time, surrounding the man with the Uchiha eye along the expanse of the tunnel. To his surprise, Kakashi easily dodged each of the pillars that grew out from both the ground and the ceiling and moved around with ease, even leaping on top of one which was rising and escaping just as it closed with the ceiling with a thunderous slam.

Orochimaru's eyes widened when Kakashi reached the last few meters when suddenly two pillars appeared on either side in front of him, blocking the path for anyone to fit through.

"Now what, you poor little bastard chi-ah-ugh!"

The eagle made its last call as Kakashi leaned forward through the gap in the pillars, glaring through them with his red eye.

"I just missed your heart…"

Orochimaru shook violently, pulling away as Kakashi's finger tips popped out bloody and black because of the powerful heat radiating off of his chakra-encased hand.

"You hit me… I can't believe it, you truly have grown, Kakashi."

Kakashi continued to glare. Then he heard a rumbling and a shout of, "Naruto, watch out!"

Orochimaru smirked when a scream shot out from behind Kakashi, making the jonin's eyes widen before he pulled his arm out from between the pillars and dashed swiftly towards the source of the scream. "Sasuke!"

To his shock and horror, Sasuke was lying on the ground with his back arched and his legs crushed underneath a giant rock. Kakashi's heart began pounding as he remembered ancient history, and Naruto's hand stopped shaking as he lay on his back.

Staring on in confusion, Naruto tried to make sense of it all, but all he could think about was:

_Did Sasuke just push me out of the way?_

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><p>Inoichi immediately ran toward the boy and knelt down beside him, performing a medical jutsu on him.<p>

"How terrible." Orochimaru lamented, sighing theatrically. "I suppose he is no longer of any use to me with legs crushed like ground sausage meat."

Naruto stood up and turned to the sannin, running toward him through all of the rocky pillars that stood in the way as he screamed. "No wait! Naruto!" Kakashi called out, sliding to a stop as he turned back around to retrieve the blond.

Orochimaru chuckled and dodged the first swing before swinging his arm back to hit the back of Naruto's head and incapacitate him.

"Give sensei my regards." Said the sannin grinning as he caught the boy by his collar before his face hit the ground. "And let him know that if he wants to bargain for the boy then he will be in Mizu. I will sell the chance to kill the Yondaime's son to the highest bidder, and Mizu is the perfect place to gain a bunch of stupid, lonesome, different followers who will do my bidding… all I needed was the right leverage."

And with that, Orochimaru disappeared into the darkness along with Naruto.

The look on Kakashi and Inoichi's faces when the Hokage arrived made the old man fall to one knee, slamming his fist violently into the ground, not himself for a moment when he realized he just lost a boy who was like a grandchild to him.

"_Orochimaru… you took two young lives from me today… the life of a shinobi in this talented young boy lying before me, and the boy whose parents were the saviors of the village ten years ago."_

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><p>*Note: This description regarding the snake and the firecracker is just for the story. Don't actually go trying this shit. That's messed up. And if you do, I hope the snake bites your ass first. :P<p>

**Author:** So I said was going to answer a question about Naruto's age and I **am** going to answer it by asking a question. What do you think would happen if Naruto was too old to have the Kyubi sealed in him at the beginning of the story?

Ok, a second question: do you have any illusions that Naruto is actually carrying the Kyubi at this point in the story?

Maybe someone can enlighten me if they know, but a kind soul brought up the argument that it is a kid's manga aimed at children, and so inconsistencies are bound to occur. I knew this, but sometimes I get so wrapped up in the story and trying to please people that I forget that I could give a damn about what is happening in canon. Anyways, thank you for bringing up problems in the story, timeline or plot when they happen, and keep doing so, but know that if you bring it up and I choose to ignore your issue with it from now on, then things are going as they are for a reason.

Again, thanks, and wish me luck this week. I need a C in this Trig class. lol


	11. Chapter 11

_Five weeks later_, Naruto sat in a room with seven empty chairs in the middle, a larger throne set higher up behind them against the wall and a few throw pillows and a table for the audience. From the throne, a pair of green eyes considered his presence in the Orochi Grand Hall while a pale man with a similar name stood just outside the door. Naruto sat in silence as the mizukage deliberated over the young boy's presence in the hall of the seven swordsmen of the Mist. The mizukage was pleasantly surprised at the boy's mettle; not once did he break eye-contact. Those eyes, fluorescent blue like his chakra, were rocks in space, spinning on their axis as they revolved around their suns; the phases of the moon, the birth and death of the sun. There was something about those eyes, and in association, that boy, that made the mizukage finally order a bodyguard to call Orochimaru back into the room. Naruto would spend the next six months in Mizu; at the time, he thought maybe he had found his burial ground, his final resting place, but what he didn't realize was that there was much more in store for him than to be used as a bargaining tool against the other military powers of the shinobi world.

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><p>Chapter 11<p>

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. Excuse me for any inconsistencies, I'm still ironing out the timeline. Let me know if you see anything wrong! Thanks!

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><p>Sasuke sat in his chair, looking down at the ground past his knees wrapped in a blanket. His eyes peeled back the layers of the floor below him, looking past it to something else, something he couldn't find on this earth. His thoughts were on his brother and he pondered about his situation and about his own current predicament for so long that he began to lose track of time. The sanitized smell of the hospital might have gotten to his head by now if he hadn't spent so much time outside thanks to the company that he kept. He was alone in his hospital room but he knew the solitude wouldn't last; it was noon and every day at noon about five minutes late, Ino would stop by and tend to his flowers while she spoke with him. She would sit on his bed, he on his chair, and she would drink tea while his grew cold. Today would be no different, he thought.<p>

"Sasuke!" That was Ino calling. Typical.

"Hai, hai. I'm here." He called back lazily; sitting further back in his chair as he used the arm rests to help him slide back into the uncomfortable wheelchair while he waited as the pretty blonde opened the door and stepped through, closing it quickly behind her with an ecstatic look appearing on her charming face.

"Sasuke! Sasuke! The Princess Gale story is out in theatres! Want to go with me?"

Sasuke smirked, "I thought you said you'd stop trying to ask me out."

Her own face twitched into an annoyed look as she grumbled, "Baka! Like anyone would want to date your moody ass. You get more visitors than any of the kages ever got to their funerals by all the female population of Konoha and it's making your head big like a fat Akimichi."

Sasuke snickered, "A fat Akimichi is like a… double negative."

"Well it certainly makes for a positive growth to your head."

He laughed at that. "I'm glad I can _still get_ a positive _growth_ to my head." Ino flustered incoherently but he ignored her reaction to his joke and frowned, acting hurt saying "You don't care anymore about my legs, do you?"

Still red in the face, Ino responded, "I was over that after the first day when you called me a 'nagging, straw-haired bitch'," she said, emphasizing the words as she placed her hands on her narrow hips, "and then shoved me off and nearly made me fall on my-"

"-flat," he interjected.

"**Ass.**" She scowled at him, giving him what he liked to call _the eye_.

"You were asphyxiating me."

"You know, only stuck up assholes use words like 'asphyxiating' when they're actually talking; you think you're narrating your own life story or something. I was **hugging** you, asshole. I felt **sorry **for you. But now I realize that you're just a stubborn ass who couldn't have had a better thing happen to him in his life than to have his legs broken, because who knows what sorts of crazy trouble you'd get yourself into someday if you were, god forbid, ever able to walk again."

Ino glared. Sasuke shot one back. They both leered.

Then they laughed.

Sasuke didn't know why, but the young girl's presence ever since the kidnapping incident made it easier for him to cope with the loss of his legs. Her blunt attitude let him laugh at his own predicament and wonder less about what might have happened if that boulder had missed his legs. Maybe it would've hit him directly on the top of the head and he'd be dead. Either way, he had no illusions of ever becoming a shinobi again; with his left leg amputated and his right mangled he could barely wipe his own ass (and he did due to his own pride, and he was lucky that he still had a bit of mobility in his hips, though he struggled to and it would be easier if he just let someone else do it), much less hop from branch to branch as he burst through the forest on some ridiculous mission.

He found the other day that his chakra system was still working just fine, though he seemed to have slightly less of a chakra capacity ever since then. Oddly enough, his fireball jutsu seemed stronger ever since the incident, it just didn't last as long. He wasn't sure why, but he figured he could at least still learn something from the ninja library if the Hokage would only give him access.

"So, please Sasuke? C'mon, it's probably a real good movie! A new up and coming actress is performing in it and I hear it's based off of that old legend about the barefoot woman in the land of snowflakes who started off as a beggar and ended up being the Princess of the entire country."

"That sounds… excruciating."

"See? You sound like an arrogant ass when you use words like that." Ino smirked and Sasuke turned to look out the window and shrugged.

"Yeah, let's go. When does it start?"

"Fifteen minutes! C'mon!"

And without anymore warning, Sasuke felt Ino take the reins and rush him out the door and down the hallway out the hospital with nurses running after them waving their arms and yelling for them to come back just as Ino barreled him down a series of staircases, making him bounce roughly in his chair as he was tilted back and moved down the flight of stairs with ease. Every time the wheels to the chair hit the step below them though, his ass would bounce relatively hard on the uncomfortable chair, making him curse the blonde.

But he didn't scream. Why bother? If he broke anything else he probably wouldn't be in a much worse situation than he already was.

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><p>The Hokage signed off on another A rank mission Kakashi was to take to search for Naruto. It was the third one in last two weeks, six in the past three months. The first three months ago was to Mizu, immediately acting on Orochimaru's words during the incident, but Kakashi was unable to get across due to a rebellion that was taking place that supposedly ended the life of the Yondaime Mizukage and lead to a bitter war between many of the clans that had kekkei genkai and those whose lineage dated back to the founding of the village. Some even claimed to be from the giant sea behind Mizu away from the great shinobi continent.<p>

Sarutobi was getting desperate, but his hope was starting to die down as well. He wanted to hear something back from the boy; it felt as if he were locked out of his own house and he knew that the key was inside, but just in case he checked everywhere and with everyone else because there was no way for him to get in without breaking his window and damaging his property.

Kakashi ended up infiltrating Kumo and Iwa instead of Mizu, but there was no sign of either Orochimaru or Naruto making it to either of those countries. He did learn a few interesting things. Iwa's populace laughed at the possibility of an heir to the Yellow Flash. He found that there was indeed a small group that had banded together with the intention of capturing the boy, but spies had quickly reported back in Iwa letting them know that the boy in question had already been abducted, possibly killed, and either way there was no proof that he was the Flash's boy in the first place. There were wild stories populating left and right, but not a single one mentioned Orochimaru's involvement in the kidnapping.

In Kumo, Kakashi found that they were still trying to find ways to get a hold of Konoha's Byakugan, and most of their training seemed to be geared around the possibility of running into an experienced gentle fist user. It was an interesting tactic, and Kakashi used his seven days in Kumo to find out more about their tailed beast vessels and learned that the Raikage's younger brother was apparently one of them. Kakashi left Kumo with little more information about Naruto. There was a rumor that the Godaime Mizukage had been selected by the time Kakashi left Kumo two months ago, five weeks after the abduction, but he was unable to verify it, even after trying to get back into Mizu again only for him to be attacked a mile from the shore by Mizu missing nin that were out hunting stragglers trying to exit the country due to the war.

They were all in his bingo book, so Kakashi disposed of each of them and even sealed away the bodies for further inspection himself, since he was an ex-hunter nin.

The further he tried to infilitrate, the more dangerous it became with ambushes and attacks sprouting up even by water when a group of shinobi who could breathe ice made their way out on his boat. After dealing with the strong, but young and inexperienced owners of their own kekkai genkai, Kakashi realized that he would need back up to infiltrate Mizu. Her turned back that same night and started heading back home.

When he returned to the crowded streets of Konoha after his mission debriefing, he saw Ino and Sasuke exiting the theatre together and smiled. It was good that the Uchiha boy had someone who cared about him the way family should; after all, the boy's only family alive was his brother, and there was no chance of them reconciling their differences… much less his brother Itachi reconciling his differences with the village.

Kakashi, worried about the effects that the cursed seal might have on Sasuke's body, walked up to the two young genin to see how they were doing.

"Yo! Sasuke-kun. Ino-kun."

Ino smiled when she saw the jonin sensei; she was surprised to hear how many missions he had gone on lately. They weren't kept much of a secret, the Hokage constantly explained to Naruto's close friends and not that the boy was being searched for, and they were doing everything in their manpower to retrieve him. Ino still had the scar of the map on the inside of her arm, though it was fading away slowly; it was a painful reminder that all of her struggling to maintain her jutsu had been in vain. It wasn't that she felt any sort of anger towards the Hokage or Kakashi or even her father because of Naruto's abduction, but she just had a lot of resentment towards herself. Had she just ignored what Naruto said and gone with him… Ino squeezed her lips together, drawing them firmly as she remembered the passionate,messy kiss that they shared during those last few seconds in desperation. Her face must've been red, because Kakashi chuckled.

"No need to be embarrassed, Ino. I won't tell anyone about your relationship; I just wanted to see how the two of you were, maybe we can all share an order of dumplings and talk about it?"

Sasuke smiled, "Yeah, I'm actually pretty hungry if you're buying."

Kakashi blinked, "Huh? Why do I have to buy?"

"You're the one doing all the A class missions, not us. You should treat us since you're the one who offered anyways. C'mon." Ino said, and then proceeded to wheel Sasuke along while Kakashi dragged on behind them.

_I didn't say I would pay though…_

When they arrived at the dango shop, Kakashi remembered that this was the same one that Anko frequented because she loved the sweet-tasting dumplings and could eat orders and orders of them; chalk it up to his dating experience when he was much younger: remember to take a girl somewhere where she won't want to eat away every last ryo to your name. Instead, get her that favorite treat of hers as a gift, hopefully not one used to make amends.

Remembering those fond, but brief, memories of Anko, he was not ready to hear what Ino had to say next.

"So, Kakashi-sensei. You've been gone for a long time on missions; did you hear that the proctor for next year's chunin exams here in Konoha has gone missing?"

Making a sound with his mouth, Kakashi didn't quite hear what it was exactly, but he was sure it made him obvious that the news upset him. "I'm sorry, were the two of you close? She's a few years younger than you, maybe? I'm not sure."

"Two years… I didn't know. How long has she gone missing?"

"Ever since Naruto was taken away…" Ino said, mumbling nearly under her breath. Reliving the kiss didn't exactly make things easier, and her feelings about the blond boy were all over the place; the worst thing about it was that he wasn't around for her to find out if she actually liked him or was just infatuated because of the circumstances surrounding him.

"That same day?"

Sasuke shook his head. "Hokage-sama said he wasn't sure when he came to visit me. He also said that it didn't look like anyone had broken into her apartment and she either was taken outside of her home or left on her own. Either way, he had to label her as a missing nin. Her name will show up on the new bingo books next quarter if no news comes back on her."

"Yeah, I remember that. She was Orochimaru's apprentice at one point… is it possible that…?"

Kakashi frowned and shook his head. "Anko spent a significant portion of her life trying to gain Orochimaru's acceptance because he was one of the few people who enjoyed her unusual mannerisms. He trained her at an early age and exposed her to dangerous experiments, even using her as a guinea pig for his cursed seal technique which you now bear on your shoulder, Sasuke."

Sasuke reached back and gripped his shoulder firmly, "Hokage-sama told me that only one in ten survived this cursed mark. I figure whatever Kami-sama has planned for me, it must be something big for me to still be alive after that seal and that boulder."

Ino grinned, "To annoy the hell out of us, of course."

Sasuke scowled at her and Kakashi sighed. "Is something the matter, Hatake-san?"

Kakashi turned his head and looked at Sasuke, a frown hanging underneath his mask. "I have been looking all of this time for Naruto, and I haven't found him. The place I know where he must be is in lockdown right now; there are just way too many shinobi fighting to get away unscathed."

"Is Mizu really that bad right now?" Ino asked, looking down but hiding away her arm from her sight to avoid being reminded by the mark.

"It's terribly bad. The traps they have set up are devious and there are bodies and parts of bodies lying all around the island shore. Many of them were the bodies of civilians trying to leave the country. With the reign of the previous mizukage finally drawing to an end, the normally violent shinobi from that _bloody mist_ are twice as bad right now. My first few steps into the country had me fighting several chunin level shinobi that had defected and were now stealing from the corpses lying around; apparently most of the traps were set by them. I relived a bit of my ANBU days when I went to Mizu."

"That's so sick…" Ino bit her lip and turned her head away. "So… nothing at all about Naruto?"

Kakashi seemed prone to frowning today. One of the waitresses finally made it to their table and took their order, and moved back quickly to bring them five orders of dumplings so they could have some left over and some tea. Ino liked lavender green.

When the tea came a few minutes later an ugly silence took over the table as the three of them tried to cope with the loss of the young boy, someone they knew, if hardly at all the way they wanted to.

"We take people for granted." Kakashi said, finally breaking the silence. "I lost some very important friends of mine that made me the man and shinobi I am today… but I would trade all of that away to see any one of them again…"

Ino leaned forward on the table, covering one eye with her left hand while her right rubbed at the corner of her right eye. Why was Orochimaru in Konoha all of a sudden, just for Naruto? Ino felt the bitterness she bottled up inside for what happened about to burst out of her and bring her to tears when suddenly Sasuke spoke up in a different, unwavering voice.

"He'll come back."

Ino looked up, her eyes slightly red though she felt the tears dry up slightly.

"What?"

"If he doesn't come back on his own, I promise to bring him back on my own…" Sasuke closed his eyes as he searched for words before reaching out and setting his palm on the table in front of Ino, turning his hand upright to offer his palm.

"I will bring Naruto back for sure." Sasuke said. Ino shook at the look of determination that crossed his eyes. Ino couldn't believe what Sasuke was saying with that look on his eyes. He couldn't possibly find Naruto and bring him back in a wheelchair! No therapy or chakra or treatments or anything else would make it possible for him to go out and find the blond all the way in Mizu. Ino's doubts in others and herself, her regrets and the weight of her inner struggle were breaking her shoulder blades. Just when she thought she couldn't bear it anymore, everything… **everything **was wiped away in a single sentence said with the utmost sincerity and the most perfect timing possible.

"It's the promise of a lifetime."

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><p><strong>Update: <strong>(5/3/12) **One word** was all it took to imply something that would ruin what I have been trying to build up to from the very beginning. Lmao. I hope nobody noticed it, but if you did, then I did not mean to imply what it did... Had to do with tailed beast vessels. By the way, finals are over! I'll be writing up something new soon.

Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Very few things changed in this chapter... just that one word and added a little paragraph about the hokage. Thank you for your wonderful reviews!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

**Author: **Note, before you read (and I hate telling people this outside of the story, but it might be warranted for these past couple of chapters) this happened in the past. Several months passed by in the last chapter, but this is all covering what Naruto did as soon as they reached mist and what happens afterward and finally the plot is going to thicken :) Thank you all for being patient and leaving me nice reviews, I want to make it fun for you to read so please try to keep up with me; as one reader suggested, he/she really had to pay attention to what I had to write to be able to follow. Nothing is changing. :p

Luv,

Mos

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><p>Naruto sat in a large guest room with two body guards standing at the double doors while Orochimaru stood next to a large series of shelves perusing the available texts for something to catch his eye. Naruto looks thin, sickly even and his eyes were stuck on the sannin with a mean glare creeping out from under his brow. His stomach was killing him; a pang of hunger squeezed his guts like a dog chewing on a rubber ball. His cheeks were pale, lips chapped and his skin terribly rubbery due to the rough travels to Mizu.<p>

Naruto had a very good reason to be glaring at the sannin who played blissfully unaware of the eyes, solid neon blue and livid like a teal flame in a fancy drink. His angry knuckles were white after every last drop of blood must have been squeezed out of them to move to the muscles of his hand; he clenched his fists tightly until his hands began to shake, but even with all of the killing intent that was coming off of the boy the sannin didn't seem to mind at all. Instead, he reached up to a particularly small scroll and flipped through the pages briefly before tossing it over his shoulder behind him, grumbling a _"No, no."_

Naruto didn't notice the growing pile of scrolls lying on the floor behind Orochimaru, his attention was glued to the sannin as he tried to watch for some sort of opening that wasn't completely obvious as it was now. If he attacked, he knew that he would be killed. No, Naruto had to play it smarter than that, but what could he do? He tried to think of something else to get his mind off of trying to kill the much stronger man, but every thought he had slowly came back to his trip across the waters to the Land of Water and the hidden mist within it.

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><p>When Orochimaru and his unwilling charge stepped over to the shore, Naruto looked around and nodded. "Are we going to camp out here tonight?"<p>

Chuckling in his drawn out voice, Orochimaru smirked and simply shook his head no as he looked out onto the surface of the water as the waves rushed the beach. He took off his sandals and put them in his Kimono before walking into the water.

Naruto blinked and did the same, and following after the sannin as the tide came back covering further than it had the last time it came up. Naruto was actually astounded at the view. After all, this was the first time he had ever seen the beach. As he walked into the water, he felt a little dizzy because of the waves and almost didn't notice that Orochimaru had begun to rise up onto the surface of the water even as it became so deep that Naruto's shins had become covered by the tide.

"Wait, what're you doing!" Naruto demanded, looking out into the middle of the water and not quite able to see Mizu because it was just that far away from the shore.

Naruto chased after him, molding chakra as he pushed it through his legs to keep himself afloat.

As he sank through the surface of the water, he felt that familiar tug from when he initially tried to perform the first technique from the scroll of sealing. He struggled to stay afloat, but he never learned how to properly swim since swimming around in a pond and in the ocean were totally different venues, and the ocean waters were too turbulent for him to make any real progress swimming anyways. One particularly dastardly lick from a turning wave hit him directly on the top of the head and pushed his head under the water. He coughed as he managed to bring himself back up to the surface and sucked in as much breath as he could before he felt his control slipping from him again. His hands reached upwards and he managed to use enough chakra to pull himself back up to the surface, but seeing the fin of a shark a few meters away made his focus slip and caused him to fall face first back in.

The thick salty taste and smell of the water that reminded him of what cheap laundry detergent smelled like made him gag while underwater; the area around him was displaced as he coughed and bubbles of air escaped his mouth as water rushed in and gargled screams escaped his mouth, his body sinking even more.

As his vision started to go, he felt a fist reach in and snag him back up by his blond hair, dragging him back onto the surface of the water where he looked up as he tried to rub the salt water out of his eyes. Orochimaru smirked and knelt down, looking the boy directly in the eye with his golden eyes.

"What?" Naruto demanded, spitting out water and coughing as he tried to focus on keeping himself suspended on the surface of the water. It felt as if he were walking on strings and the only thing keeping him from rolling back in was a bit of determination and his new fear of drowning to death.

"Is this the extent to which you are willing to walk? Is this as far as you will go for your ambitions? If you cannot walk the whole way, then I may as well kill you now and drag along your body with me. You no longer have any collateral and your corpse is worth just as much as your living, breathing self."

Naruto didn't say a word. He shook from the cold of the water and from the lack of chakra in his system. He didn't get up, and didn't make a move to follow the sannin as he began to turn around.

Orochimaru turned and looked down over his shoulder at the boy and smirked, "Is that all I can expect of you? A bawling child crying on his knees that he's not strong enough? Get up, boy."

Naruto looked up and glared at the pale faced man. He pushed himself up onto his feet and began walking again. He couldn't see Mizu yet and they had already walked ten minutes.

"I couldn't imagine how long you'd last if we had to run away from hidden mist's assassins. I'll let you drown if you can't keep up with me."

"Go to hell!" Naruto screamed at him, walking behind him as each step pained him, inevitably more and more of his chakra drained and he began to feel as if his entire body was an hourglass and his time was nearly up.

Orochimaru snickered with a hissing sounding voice.

Naruto rolled his eyes, toiling through the work of walking this ridiculously long distance by water-walking. _Why the hell couldn't we get a boat? Hell, I'd steal one right now if I saw one moving around out here._

He looked at the sannin who wore a black kimono with fluorescent purple and white grass and daffodil designs hand-sewn into the chest and side. He was nothing if not eccentric; the way the older man carried himself could be praiseworthy if he wasn't such a sadistic piece of rotten human filth. But he didn't seem to mind. Naruto didn't try to pretend to unveil the sannin's thought process, but he knew that anything this man had in mind would not be good for the him, the shinobi villages, and much less for mankind.

As time passed, each step he took felt like a knife was cutting into his shins. He would take the next step and feel his feet dig into the water as if he were standing on some sort of wobbly rubber and he'd have to subsequently dig each of his feet out of the water as he felt the cool liquid running in between his feet and his sandals. The land of water was finally visible; it surprised him tremendously how it suddenly popped up out of nowhere. He wondered how accurate a map could be, remembering one he saw of their continent during a class at the academy, when the only way you could find a place is if you were standing right next to it.

To Naruto's surprise, while he was looking down at his feet to keep track of his walking, he heard Orochimaru say to him, "You are strong. Stronger than some." Not sure what to make of it, and wondering if that was some sort of complement coming from the old man, Naruto just filed that little thought away for later, trying to focus on the last few meters as they reached the beach. The sannin never turned to look back on the boy, even as their feet finally reached the floor and Naruto fell to his knees, his legs burning and his heart railing against his chest while his head pounded. He rolled over onto his back and took in deep breaths, his eyes screwed shut as the chakra exhaustion began creeping over him and he felt small sores in various places along his legs which he figured were where his tenketsu were located.

He didn't pass out, but the pain was unbearable and no amount of cursing or groaning from the sannin could get him to move. They were met there by Mizu's ANBU, a three man cell of hunter-nin. The three ANBU looked fairly apprehensive at first, but it must've been because of the war. There was smoke coming out just outside the jungle area at the front before the mountain regions. It was black, and clouded the sky ominously, signaling the struggle and death there was to come to those who stepped forth and entered this gruesome country.

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><p>Naruto's glare eased up when he started to feel sleepy, while a knock came at the door and the two body guards stepped aside to allow a messenger to pass.<p>

"Namikaze boy. Your presence is requested," When Naruto didn't move to get up, the young boy with shark teeth spoke up, "Now."

Naruto turned to look at Orochimaru, who grinned impishly, "That's you, boy."

Naruto sneered, "That's Uzumaki, not Namikaze you idiot."

The short-haired boy glared, "Who are you calling an idiot!"

They glared at one another up close, neither breaking eye contact. "If you have to ask, then it's worse than I thought."

"I'll kill you!"

"_I know of things much worse than death if you ever intend to follow through with that threat._"

Naruto and the other boy froze and turned to look Orochimaru's way. The sannin had a self-satisfied smile on his face, like the look one gets after having just had their favorite meal.

The messenger nodded, readjusting his glasses and tilted his head, "Let's go." He said to Naruto before gulping down the saliva that had gathered in his mouth as he nearly peed himself.

Naruto sighed, annoyed, "Fine."

As they walked, Naruto asked, "So what's your name, anyways?"

"That doesn't matter."

"You're a real prick, you know that?"

The messenger smirked and nodded, readjusting his glasses again. "No fooling?"

Naruto just shook his head and accompanied him back to the Grand Hall of the Seven Swordsmen where the Mizukage was waiting for him. He walked in through two grandesque doors, an ocean of eyes pointed at him from either side of the hidden mist kage; she did not wear the customary kage robes, only the hat the designated her as the village leader and one of the _five great shadows_. The reason why kages were called shadows, was because of the old saying that a master shinobi could not only hide in the shadows of the dark, but became shadow and engulfed everything around him in shade.

"Naruto. Forgive my young servant Chojuro; he can be very hot-headed. We know you as Namikaze because that was the surname of your father: Namikaze Minato, or perhaps you aren't aware of this? Regardless, I'd like to welcome you to the Hidden Mist village. We are in the process of reconstruction… both internally and externally, as you may have seen coming here-do you know where you are standing right now?"

Naruto shook his head, silent as he gazed on with fire in his eyes from the torches lit along the walls of the large room.

"You're standing where Namikaze Minato stood and challenged all seven of the bloody mist's swordsmen, and won."

Naruto's eyes widened. There was a light grumbling within the room as he suddenly realized that the people in the room with them were alive and he had to wonder who they were. The mizukage gave nothing away, her green eyes lit pale with the flame as it danced off of them.

"Incredible, isn't it? One person against seven legendary swordsmen with swords infused with chakra and very different, very incredible abilities that were passed down from generation to generation only by challenging the previous owner… Your father was a man worth marrying, falling for… I was a chunin, standing there in the crowd." She raised her hand and pointed, smiling fondly. "It was an incredible experience, one that influenced my training and gave me the resolve to become faster and stronger in order to secure my position here as this village's leader… though I must admit that a few other circumstances helped me along as well."

Chojuro shifted uncomfortably; he had heard the stories, but it was scary knowing that a man like that had any offspring. He wondered if bantering with the young blond had been a good idea after all.

Naruto clenched his jaw, looking at her incredulously.

She smiled, leaning close and showing off her cleavage behind her shoulder-revealing top of her blue dress, the fishnet she wore hugging her breasts snugly and drawing a few beads of sweat from Naruto as he realized for the first time just how much of a woman she was; he liked that she wasn't actually very thin, the mizukage was a hearty woman with curves that couldn't be hidden by the dress she wore. Her hair was carrot juice orange, blended beautifully with her tanned skin and lips that were not smeared with any shade of lipstick. She was a lucky woman, having naturally blushing lips that made Naruto wish he was a few years older and simultaneously wonder if she was into young boys.

"What's with that look?" She smirked, he was sneaky with the way he ogled her, but she could still tell he was enthralled. "Do you find it hard to believe your own ancestry when I'm here spelling it out here for you? Your father was really quite the man… I expect nothing less from his only son."

"You're that sure I'm his kid, huh?" Naruto all but growled, his eyes narrowing. "I've been told this bullshit for the past couple of weeks and _I'm done_. You all can go to the edge of a cliff and _jump_. So what if I'm his son? I don't even understand how that could possibly be important. How do you know I am going to be like the Yondaime Hokage? Or like this person that everyone mistakenly believes is my father… what was his name again? Namikaze Minato? A load of bull shit."

"Watch your mouth around the mizukage, you jerk."

Naruto turned and glared at Chojuro, his eyes reflecting a level of killer intent much higher than his age and experience should've allowed; the blue-haired boy took a step back and as tremors ran through his body he reached for his kunai and dropped it before cursing and picking it back up again.

The mizukage was still smiling. Naruto continued, his upper lip rising just a bit in annoyance. "Even if I'm related to him, that doesn't mean I'll be like him or better than him; hell, according to my grades at the academy I'm a loser who can't pick up on simple jutsu, an orphan and an outcast according to my damn instructors, a freakin' bargaining chip whose _corpse_ is worth just as much as his living, breathing self according to the legendary **sannin** Orochimaru, someone probably just as strong as at least three or four of your legendary swordsmen, if not more than that… I couldn't even save my friend." Naruto closed his eyes, ending his words ominously as he finally vented all of the frustration that he felt against this whole ordeal, feeling bitter and angry, and very hungry.

The mizukage stood up from her seat and glided her curvaceous self to his side and bent over, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. Naruto blushed, looking up from the ground where he left the disappointment and regret aside as he gazed into the lime green eyes of the beautiful kage, her lips curving slightly. "I don't introduce myself to many men, but I think I'll make an exception in this case…" She bowed her head to him, drawing a gasp from the audience filled with mizu's council members and some of the elitist figures like the heads of some of the clans and organizations within the village that had not taken part in the civil war. There was some talk, but it was in a fading murmur that Naruto couldn't hear due to the soft breathing of the woman in front of him.

"Please allow me to introduce myself: my name is Terumi Mei, the newly appointed Godaime Mizukage; I am the owner of two inherent kekkai genkai… do you know what those are?"

At her easy smile, Naruto nodded slowly, "It's like the byakugan in Konoha."

She nodded, "Yes, you're right! Did you know we are in a civil war?"

Naruto nodded slowly, "But I only found out when we reached the shore… or, I'm not sure, I think Orochimaru might have mentioned it before we got here, but I pay as little attention to him as possible."

Smirking, the mizukage hooked her arm with his and lead him out the double doors, "You're hungry, aren't you? Come, let's go eat."

He followed her wordlessly, and they spent the rest of the evening together sitting on a balcony and dining on various types of seafood, but there were no ramen noodles. Unfortunately, their view from the balcony was that of the civil war going on and the fires and raids happening just beyond the steep walls at the edge of the village where there was a drop off of the edge of the snow-capped mountain. Naruto's eyes blazed along with the flames as he watched and slowly began to lose his appetite, while the mizukage only sat there and watched in sorrow as her village and country was being destroyed from the inside out.

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><p>"I'm going to keep him here. I have the two prisoners that you wanted in exchange for him… but I hardly think they are worth trading for."<p>

Orochimaru smirked as Mei stood before him with the keys to the prison cell so that he could transport the prisoners at his own pace. He took the keys and grasped her hand as he pulled her close, whispering into her ear, "So are you telling me that I should seek some other form of… payment?"

The woman glared at him, her eyes like green shards of glass that dug into his face. Her lips were curved in a pleasant smile even as she whispered back, "Forgive me, but I'm not the type of woman that goes for wrinkly old men…" And with that, she turned around just before he let his long tongue slip out of his mouth in his scary smile before pulling it back in and watching as she shut the door behind her.

With the keys in hand, Orochimaru smirked as he held the keys to the next step in his plan to train the sights of each of the hidden villages upon each other as his own newly created village came in; a committee of vultures to feast upon the corpses of the fallen.

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><p>Had the mother of all hangovers. Pretty long chapter tonight. Enjoy :) Oh, and had to add those line breaks in otherwise it looked kinda weird. Sorry about that. Reread those parts if you want. :p<p> 


	13. Chapter 13

**Note/Explanation:** Posted at the end to let you enjoy the story. You can scroll there first.

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><p>Inside a sparring dojo within the walls of the main compound, a large series of structures was built high up long ago before the Yondaime Mizukage who adopted the castle-like compound and spent most of his time in isolation, fearful of being assassinated. Two young genin stood within standing straight as they eyed each other down. Naruto and Chojuro nodded to one another before beginning.<p>

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><p><strong>Chapter 13<strong>

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><p>First, Chojuro dashed forward and went for a false strike to the blond's head, effectively drawing his guard and using the momentum he built to knee Naruto in the upper abdomen instead. The blow disoriented him for a moment but, always predictable, Naruto used the close proximity required for the knee to his own advantage: head-butting Chojuro in the face and effectively dropping him to his knees with his hands clutching his bruised and slightly bloody ego while Naruto took a few steps back to recover from the strike to his solar plexus.<p>

When they were both ready, they took their stances in preparation for the next attack, unintentionally mirroring one another; it seemed natural as the two of them had quickly found out sparring together, because they were so similar to one another and yet had different strengths, eventually their fights would become predictable, and the predictability often put the two of them into a rough match of trading blows.

Naruto's taijutsu was improving with a strong sparring partner in Chojuro, and the rivalry and animosity they had toward one another allowed for them to push themselves past their normal limits ensuring that they both grew markedly.

Ready once more, Naruto made the first move by running around the blue haired boy to strike him from a different angle; Chojuro's eyes followed him, but he only moved enough to keep Naruto in his sights. When they finally did clash, Naruto took a step or two toward him from his side forcing Chojuro to turn enough to parry his attack, but then he kicked off harder on one leg and cut across the opposite direction, locking up the young shinobi's legs as he tried to turn back around, and tagged him with a wild backwards kick of his left leg after passing by his shoulder, aiming at the back of his head with the heel of his foot.

Ducking, Chojuro grinned, but his expression changed to one of surprise when, after landing, Naruto let himself roll backwards onto his shoulders after missing the kick to the back of his head, and then sprung himself upward to the boy's jaw as Chojuro was standing back up.

His heels connected with his jaw and one of his hands easily knocking him squarely onto his back.

"Oh, _fuck_." Muttered the young mist nin, groaning at the pain from the powerful twin-strike to his face.

"You should've blocked my first kick instead of ducking it." Naruto said, grinning mischievously.

The blue haired boy looked up and glared, his eyes taking on a different glow than normal as he tensed up suddenly. "You should've kept attacking me…" said Chojuro, locking his legs around Naruto's left leg as he stood before him and rolling with it to throw him off balance, sweeping him, and then afterwards used his weight to force him to the ground; with his left hand he positioned himself over Naruto's back and quickly wrapped his right around the boys neck as he was trying to lift his head up. Naruto, panicking tried to roll over, but when Chojuro placed his other arm behind his head and cut off his oxygen supply to his head, Naruto knew it was over.

He tapped, but Chojuro held on. Naruto muttered a curse and passed out a few seconds later, Chojuro finally released his grip only after the boy was incapacitated.

He stood up from the ground and looked down on Naruto with a smirk on his face, his pointed teeth showing.

* * *

><p>When Naruto came to, he looked up and glared at Chojuro, who simply said:<p>

"… until you knocked me out. Sparring is done differently here in Mizu. If your opponent is still awake or can move, then your match isn't over… it used to be that one of the participants of a fight had to die, before it was over; so show me some gratitude."

"Fuck you." Naruto cradled his throat and took a few steps back to distance him from the skilled genin.

"Listen, I'm trying to become one of the seven swordsmen. I have to get stronger but still, I can no longer challenge the wielder of the Hiramekarei, the shape-shifting two-handled sword, so I have to prove myself some other way."

Naruto lifted a brow, "I thought she said that was the only way to pass the sword down?"

He nodded, "Normally, but the previous owner is dead now…"

Naruto grimaced, "Ah, I see… well, then I guess they'd have a backup plan for that, then, huh? So what's the deal? How are you going to earn it?"

"I don't know yet… whatever it is, it has to be something crazy. Have any ideas?"

Naruto smiled impishly, "Kill Orochimaru; I think that might just be worth it."

"The sannin? _Hell_ no. I wouldn't go _near _that bastard… I'm actually surprised you're alive. Honestly. All that time you've spent with him… ugh."

Naruto nodded slowly. "Yeah… I thought I was going to die when we reached the beach and he started walking toward Mizu."

Chojuro smirked, "Why, scared of falling out of the boat?"

Naruto's face paled when he briefly relieved the moment of Orochimaru dragging him out of the water by his hair and throwing him onto the surface of the water, expecting him to stand up and start walking again. "No… Orochimaru and I walked the whole way."

Chojuro's eyebrows furrowed making him look confused.

"Water-walking."

"_What?_ That's not possible. You didn't come on a boat?"

Naruto shook his head.

"Oh shit… well, how did you manage it? Aren't you a genin?"

Naruto simply nodded not sure what to say, and Chojuro grimaced, shaking his head. "You must have some crazy stamina. That's more than thirty minutes, I think. I can only water walk for around ten or _maybe_ fifteen minutes, tops."

Naruto nodded again, shrugging. Chojuro grinned, "So now I see why you want me to kill him… well, we both know that ain't gonna happen. As in, it's never going to happen because I'm never going to try to, and also I know I can't… I'm scared of him, he's a freaking lunatic."

"You have no idea."

* * *

><p>After a while, the two of them went at it again clashing in the center of the dojo to fine tune their taijutsu. Naruto wasn't great on proper form, but Chojuro was, and in exchange for helping Naruto with his form, Chojuro was taught by Naruto how to switch up into different methods of attack quickly and also a few weird ways to counter. Naruto also asked him to show him that grappling move that had him unconscious so quickly, and so the two young boys who started off aggressively towards one another became fast friends, and then, with the passing of time, good friends that would protect and stand up for one another though neither of them would ever admit it.<p>

* * *

><p>Orochimaru turned and gazed at the young blond boy as he entered the room and walked over to his bed. He looked exhausted, perhaps tired after a long day's worth of training.<p>

"Perhaps you'd like to see what I have gained from trading you to Mizu?"

Naruto groaned, lying down on his bed which he had moved all the way to the other side of the room to be as far away as possible from the snake sannin. "_Nope. _Not really… I'm sure it's something to help you with your world domination plot. I really don't care." Naruto let his head rest against his pillow as he closed his eyes, sighing contently as he let the soft comfort of the bed envelop him.

"There are two of them, in case you change your mind, gaki. Both of them are from your village." Naruto's eyes opened and the sannin let his tongue slither out of his mouth with a smile and licked his upper lip. "Who knows? Perhaps they'll be familiar to you?" Orochimaru's smile widened when Naruto shot up from his bed and looked at the man in confusion, hurt written all over his face since the Mizukage had never mentioned having leaf prisoners, even though they talked often.

"Who are they?" Naruto asked, collected, but hardly calm.

"You'll have to find that out for yourself, Naruto-kun."

"Who are they?" Naruto demanded in a loud voice, but Orochimaru just swung the keys around in his fingers and shrugged before walking toward the door.

"How should I know? Probably someone much more useful and polite than you ever were. I'll be leaving now. You're welcome to follow, if you like."

The look on Orochimaru's face was one of unbidden glee; he looked like he just found out some good news and couldn't help but be happy about it. The worst part about it was it didn't seem sincere, everything about the man was so creepy and devious, spiteful. He left Naruto with no choice. Naruto steeled himself for whoever he was going to see and followed a few steps behind him.

They exited the room and walked down a long hall from their room to a spiral staircase in the center of the large building they stayed in. Naruto wasn't sure where it was coming from at first, but he heard a light chiming sound that was so soft it was almost drowned out by his own footsteps. Orochimaru's were silent. Walking down from the fifth floor, they went down two basement levels after the first floor and stood before two guards; one was standing directly in front of the door with a giant sword clutched in front of him, while the second had his hands placed to the left side of the door on the wall where a seal was drawn into it. Apparently, if someone strong enough to dispatch the first guard came, the second was there as an insurance policy to protect the prisoners of the Hidden Mist.

Naruto had a feeling it wasn't simply out of the kindness of the Mizukage's heart.

"State your business." Asked the first guard who was intrigued by Lord Orochimaru's presence.

Orochimaru smiled, "I'm here to see how my prizes fare… the two Hyuga."

Naruto turned to look at Orochimaru and wondered if one of his classmates, Hinata was one of them.

"The Hyuga? Do you have your keys?"

Orochimaru extended his arm out and handed the guard the keys which were used to open the first door. "Come on, I don't got all day."

Naruto walked in behind Orochimaru and was surprised to see a wave of different prisoners in a circular room, pairs of them behind bars with symbols etched into them. He looked around for the signature pale eyes of a Hyuga, but could not spot one. It wasn't until they came up close that he noticed the two young teenagers were lying back on their bunk beds, staring up.

Naruto frowned, they both seemed to be nourished properly, but the lack of exercise was starting to show and they appeared sluggish when they were ordered to stand and come meet their visitors.

Both of them were Hyuga, but the boy, who was also shorter, had a caged bird seal on his forehead. The other was a tall young girl without the seal; their eyes were wax white and pale lavender respectively. Naruto figured they were both older than him because of the way they looked, but their height played a part of his assumption as well. They were both at least a head taller than him, the girl being a little under two taller than he was.

"Here's your key, you can take them today or you can come back for them some other time, just don't expect me to be this nice to you next time." The guard walked off after handing Orochimaru the key, who merely smirked, looking the foolish man in the eye as he walked away.

Orochimaru turned to the two Hyuga and smiled, "You're from the branch family," he quickly stated, brow arched as he looked at the young Hyuga teen, who frowned as he noticed just who was talking to him.

"Yes, Lord Orochimaru."

"Ah, you know me then?"

"… of you, yes, my lord." Naruto looked at the young man and saw a look of acknowledgement coming from behind his emotionless Hyuga eyes; it surprised Naruto, but it must have been a part of his general body language that was saying that the Hyuga had met Orochimaru at least once before.

The teenage girl standing beside him blushed prettily when she looked up at Orochimaru, whose androgynous features could be quite compelling and alluring in the right light. His style of dress was the same, he still wore flamboyant kimonos and the one he wore today was no exception. In the front he wore the symbol of a serpent in a vibrant blue the color of Naruto's eyes, the serpent crawling up a sword to the hilt, but on the back he wore the face of a large dragon, its eyes gazing out of the man's shoulder blades.

Naruto was spooked slightly because it seemed like the eyes of the dragon were looking at him. He soon realized that they were small bells that hung and bounced as the sannin walked, chiming gently with each movement.

"Well then, Naruto-kun, let me introduce you three: this is my fledgling companion and disciple, Namikaze Naruto."

Naruto looked at the sannin incredulously, "The last thing I want to be introduced as is _your_ disciple." They shared a small look, Naruto's eyes full of hatred and Orochimaru's of playfulness.

"Naruto-kun, don't be harsh," Orochimaru started, but Naruto interrupted him bitterly.

"Oh, and don't call me _Namikaze_; I am an Uzumaki. **Uu-zuu-maa-kii**."

The sannin grinned and turned to look back at the two Hyuga behind the fence. "As I was saying, this tall little pretty one is Tessen-chan… this determined young man is Gunbai."

Naruto nodded at each of them and turned back to Orochimaru, "So are you going to let them out?"

Orochimaru chuckled and the two teenagers took a step back from the door while he shook his head, "When the time is right. Come along."

Naruto watched as the sannin walked off, going back to the front door to get his other key. Naruto turned to look at the two of them and frowned, "Why would he know your names if you seem to have only met him today?"

Tessen crossed her arms over her chest and turned away while Gunbai just glared.

Naruto received nothing but silence, so he turned and walked away to leave the two of them alone for now.

* * *

><p>Later that evening, when Orochimaru turned in for the night, he set the pair of keys down on a coffee table by the television that had not been used this whole time they stayed in Mizu. Naruto was already lying down, seemingly asleep, but his eye popped open and he pushed himself up off of the bed and picked up the pair of keys. Walking down the hall and five floors down the winding staircase, Naruto ended up in front of the bodyguards with the keys in hand, and was surprised that the main guard didn't bother heckling him. He stepped through with his second key and walked over to the room with the two Hyuga, his eyes catching the eyes of some of the other prisoners as he walked. They were all people he didn't know or recognize, but none of them seemed to be leaf shinobi besides the Hyuga.<p>

When Naruto stood in front of the cage, Gunbai got up out of his bed and walked over to him, gazing back into Naruto's blue eyes as they waited in silence while Naruto gathered his thoughts.

Finally, Naruto spoke, "You are a Hyuga… how did you get caught? Why are you here?"

Gunbai looked at him as memories of Orochimaru and a terrible deed flooded his mind.

"Orochimaru freed us from Konoha." He said simply.

Naruto's eyes narrowed, that sounded backwards. "_Freed_ you?"

"We should be dead." Gunbai sat behind his side of the cage while Naruto took his own seat to listen carefully to the story.

"It's all… because of this caged bird seal and this accursed clan." He pointed at his own forehead with his thumb and lowered his eyes to the ground under Naruto's scrutiny.

"Why are you telling me this?" Naruto asked, concerned about his openness.

Gunbai narrowed his eyes and looked at Naruto carefully, "You came to ask me, didn't you? You are my guest, and so I wish to treat you hospitably."

Naruto grimaced; so _his subservient attitude that he brought with him from the Hyuga clan stuck, huh?_

"So are you a shinobi?"

Gunbai nodded. "All of the branch house is shinobi. We are geared from the very beginning to have no fear, and to protect the main family of the house with our lives."

Naruto clenched his jaw, not liking the sound of the 'no fear' aspect; _so what does that mean? They're made to have no fear of putting their own lives on the line to save people that subjugate them?_

Naruto sat down in front of the cage and Gunbai followed suit, kneeling down respectfully on his side.

Naruto continued to ask, "What about the main house? Are they required to train as shinobi?"

"They are required to practice the gentle fist; mastering that is more important than becoming a shinobi… but generally a gentle fist practitioner makes for a very capable shinobi."

"And your friend, Tessen? I've never met her before, is she one of Hinata's sisters?"

Gunbai shook his head, "No; Hinata-sama only has one sibling and that is Hanabi. Tessen is the granddaughter of the fourth seat in the Hyuga committee. They are each heads within the clan; hence, why we call each of their families _branches_."

"So where does that place her… and you for that matter?" Naruto was still surprised that he was being so open. It almost seemed too convenient that he would be getting a lecture on Hyuga politics by a prisoner in the middle of Mizu.

"She is not exactly royalty, because Hinata-sama and her father, Hiashi-sama are the current heads of the entire clan, meaning they are the ones with the most influence and power at the moment, like the crown on top of the head; however, things are changing… have changed… and the other branches are trying to reach out and grow further."

Naruto nodded. "And you?"

Gunbai smiled, finally. "Dead; thank goodness."

Flinching, Naruto asked carefully, as if he was scared it would turn out Gunbai would turn out to be a zombie. "How are you… dead?"

Suddenly, from behind Gunbai's kneeling figure, Tessen came and sat down on her knees besides the sealed boy, kissing his cheek to get his attention. "It's like what Orochimaru once said: death is dead to him, as it is to us."

"In other words, Konoha suspects that we both already died committing suicide because we couldn't be together." The couple held each other's hand and shared a knowing look as Naruto suddenly felt like a third wheel sitting on the other side of the gate here. Actually, he was glad to have the distance.

"So, you mean, no one knows you're actually here, hanging out in a prison cell in Mizu together… _way_ convenient."

Tessen smiled softly, batting her eyelashes at the boy, "Not quite; Terumi-dono is very sweet and accommodating. It seems like things have changed, though, if she has been fooled into taking you in as her ward in exchange for us. It is exactly what Orochimaru-sama intended for us."

"Hush, Tessen. We may reveal only what we were told to, please remember."

She nodded and smiled marvelously at her lover before wrapping her arms around his shoulders and leaning into him. He placed his head into the nape of her neck and kissed her collarbone just above the neckline of her shirt.

Naruto was blushing, but he had to keep talking and asking this all-too-willing couple for more clues as to why Orochimaru was orchestrating this whole ordeal. That very thought left Naruto extremely uncomfortable, and the root of understanding began to take as he realized a very important question that he had to ask of them.

"When were you two… when did you…?"

He couldn't ask, but Gunbai got the gist of it, "We faked our deaths six months ago. Four months ago we arrived here as prisoners of war, since Water has no treaties with Fire."

Naruto nodded slowly, realization dawning on him, all too much like a fiery sun in the East.

"I have a hard time believing that you easily got away from the Hyuga… and there's no jutsu that they cannot see through with their eyes, so how did you fool them? How did you make it look like you were dead?"

Tessen shivered and Gunbai lowered his head, placing his palm down on his lover's knee as he prepared to spill the details of their faked deaths. "Orochimaru has a multitude of forbidden techniques that we were prepared to use. He used our cells to make a construct of our own faces, and we provided the bodies…"

Naruto's stomach clenched and he lowered his head.

"Do you know what happens when a person dies? Their chakra leaves the body through their tenketsu and rejoins the Earth. To a Hyuga, a dead body looks nothing more like an empty shell, a cage without its bird."

"And this jutsu… who did you kill in order to find the appropriate bodies? Don't they have to be similar in shape and size to you two?"

Tessen nodded, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes as she spoke angrily, "We killed a group of older genin doing a D-rank mission. It was one that Orochimaru had commissioned using one of his assets and he personally used the jonin sensei's face to help us… take care of them. The girl was just tall enough to pass for Tessen, and one of the boys had very long hair, like mine."

Naruto stood up, "I have to leave."

Tessen shot up as well and immediately reached through the cage, grabbing Naruto by the black undershirt he wore. Naruto stared in surprise and a little bit of fear etched on his face as he tried to pry her hands away. She was _strong!_

"Please, don't think badly of him. He only did it because he cared about our predicament and it was the only way! Thanks to him, our love can continue on and we won't ever have to hide it again as long as we don't return to that wretched place, and neither of us would ever want to!" She gazed into his eyes. It was the first time he noticed that they really did have pupils, they were just white.

"We would gladly give up our lives for him, because he gave us so much more. These past few months together, even locked away in a cell like this, has given us a new perspective on life."

Naruto glared at the girl, angry at the way Orochimaru had them wrapped around his little finger; warped around the idea that he could possibly care for them.

_When seeking for the perfect underling, you search for any of __the three ones__: you find the stupid ones, __the ones who have no one__, and the ones who are different. By seeking out these poor lost souls, you can build an army willing to die for you or your cause without any hesitance; without that useless instinct for self-preservation._

"So after finally coming together and being free from your cage you walk right into a new one, one made of lies and deceit?" Naruto's fists clenched as he thought of the sannin, the golden eyes illuminating in the darkness with a few strands of hair obscuring one of them.

"You judge us, yet you don't understand us… I'm sorry that it sounds like we are being used, and we are…"

"So why can't you see that it's _wrong_?"

"**Because!**" Yelled Gunbai, his eyes narrowing, "It's _not_ wrong. We're together… finally... and that's _**all**_ that matters." They met together in an embrace and he whispered into her ear, "Nothing more."

Naruto stared on in anger, annoyance, and disbelief. He turned around and started walking away, but had to turn back to grab the key that he had left on the floor. He looked up at them and Tessen smiled.

"Take it. Even if you leave it for us, we'll never use it. We will wait for Orochimaru-sama's next orders and follow them without fault."

Naruto picked up the key and left.

* * *

><p>When he returned to the room, he set the keys back down and prayed that sleep take hold as soon as he hit the bed. Tears were in his eyes as he remembered a blonde girl back in Konoha that he had not seen since the messy kiss they shared before the fangs of the predatory snake hooked into him and clutched him tight as he was slowly being strangled to death. The longer the kiss in his mind lasted, the more venomous the fangs became. His dreams reflected the state of regret and fear that he felt, and Naruto began to sob into his pillow, but sleep never came.<p>

Naruto visited the couple several more times, learning more and more about the things they did when they were younger, how they met, the trials they faced, and he shared some of his own, and of girl he wondered if he could love, somewhere in Konoha; until one day they were gone. And so was Orochimaru. He rubbed his forehead as he sat by himself, trying to sort out the demons as he wondered what was happening back in Konoha, and where Tessen and Gunbai would go.

He saw the dragon's face. The golden eyes and the purple makeup; the pale face of death stared back at Naruto as the only possible answer to the questions he had about his old, and newly made friends.

* * *

><p>"Orochimaru-sama, please forgive me for my ignorance, but is it worth leaving the only son of the Yondaime there in Mizu? Perhaps he could be of better use to you if you had given him to Iwa or Kumo?"<p>

Orochimaru turned his head and smiled at Tessen, his face slowly changing into an amused grin, "Kumo and Iwa would probably do something foolish like kill him on the spot. He is much too important for that. You see, when you want to capture prey, it is sometimes good to leave some bait on a lure."

Gunbai nodded, understanding the concept while Tessen bowed her head, "Again, forgive me master! Of course, that is brilliant!"

Orochimaru chuckled. He turned around and continued walking, leading the two of them Northeast, after arriving on the mainland by boat, in the direction of Kumo.

_In other circumstances it is best to throw the entire bucket of chum into the water and be prepared to take the prize with the net._

* * *

><p>Ok, so I posted earlier today… sometime in the morningafternoon in a rush. But I began to read it. So, I read and read and I felt like it wasn't going anywhere, so I decided I didn't like it. This chapter though feels majorly improved and I just liked it better how it ended up. I hope that it makes up for me posting and removing the chapter, I'll be more careful with that next time so as not to get your hopes up, but thank you all for your comments and love.

I like the idea of a time skip, but I don't think I could do it properly enough and there's still so much more to touch base on with Sasuke, Ino and the others and I don't want to just zap it all in there like what I'm going to write about later comes out of nothing… but anyways, thank you very much EpicWeaver, and I promise that the only training/mentoring that will come in will be small tidbits like the one you witnessed in chapter 12… Didn't notice it? Read again :) If at all, they will be plot driven, and if I forget, beat me up until I remember it, damn it!

Oh, and anyone notice that the word chum for fish bait is also a word used for a friend? I think that's hilarious.

Much, much luv,

Mos


	14. Chapter 14

Terumi Mei stood at the top of the five story kage compound, staring out into the distance early in the morning. Her heart played a tune in her chest and her lungs were coming short on air. Far away, but easily visible, was the largest whirlpool she had ever seen in her life living here on the island. It very easily encompassed the entire distance between Mizu and the abandoned Land of Whirlpools, Uzu.

_Bad spirits must be at work here; the country's main trading route is now blocked due to this monster in the sea. It was the only safe route. With Kumo's nautical strength to the north and the rampant piracy due south, the country will have to rely on itself more heavily for a while. _The Mizukage smirked and shook her head in disbelief._ It looks like we'll be eating fish a little more until it dies down._

The problem with that, Mei realized, was that some whirlpools lasted months or even years. She didn't know that whirlpools like the massive one forming in their ocean waters were possible in nature, but it was happening now.

She sighed, put on her hat and turned to walk back downstairs to call off a slew of missions, imports and exports and communications orders.

* * *

><p>Chapter 14<p>

* * *

><p>Naruto looked out into the water from the beach, his eyes wide as Chojuro caught up to him, gasping for breath.<p>

"Naruto! Hey, wait damn it!"

Naruto couldn't believe what he was looking at. The only thing he said was _look_, and so Chojuro finally looked up and saw the swirling waves of water funneling somewhere into the center. It was such a large whirlpool, that from where they were standing they could barely tell it wasn't one. Instead, it looked as if the waves hitting the beach were simply going the wrong direction.

"That's… that's a whirlpool."

Naruto nodded slowly, "Something pretty crazy is happening out there…"

"Right. So it's decided! C'mon!" Chojuro grinned and took off running on the surface of the water.

Confused at first, Naruto followed the young man closely behind him as the phenomenon before them slowly came into focus.

A few minutes later, Chojuro turned and shot towards a small expanse of land to the south of the edge of the whirlpool's breadth.

"Where are we going?" Naruto asked, standing indifferently before an exhausted Chojuro who looked up at him incredulously.

"You have ridiculous stamina, Namikaze, jeez. Have a seat or something; I'm getting tired just watching you." The blue haired boy said, out of breath after nearly ten minutes of constant running on the surface of the water.

"How many times do I have to tell you," Naruto glowered, kicking him lightly in the shin, "It's Uzumaki, not Namikaze."

Chojuro smirked and kicked back at his ankle, throwing Naruto off balance and dropping him to one knee.

"_Ass_." Naruto growled out, leaning his weight on one hand and kicking out with the leg he had knelt upon; they threw a few more blows when suddenly the ground beneath their feet on the tiny island shook. The size of the island and the tremor that came with it made it feel as if they were going to sink; Naruto had a pretty good feeling that if he wanted to he could throw a pebble or even a coconut from one side of the island and hit the other side. There were trees of different kinds, though most of them banana leaf and coconut, palms and the like. There was also a giant rock in the center of the island that was nearly as tall as the Mizukage compound.

Both of them looked up after the tremor and looked back at one another, the tension leaving their necks as they sighed simultaneously. Chojuro looked up at the large rock in the center of the island and cackled, shooting up suddenly and running up to it, yelling, "Yo! I'll be waiting for you at the top, you slow bastard!"

Naruto smirked and took off after him, elbowing Chojuro in the gut just as he began to climb, forcing him to take a second to catch his breath again.

"You pansy ass… I wasn't ready for that one!"

"Not my fault you have no spatial awareness." Naruto laughed, returning a comment that Mei had given Chojuro during one of their sparring sessions.

"Whoa! Hey, that ain't nice! She meant that I'm a close range fighter, that's all!"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "You liar. You're good at all ranges. Now don't let me beat you to the top!"

With that, the two boys raced each other to the top of the rock, climbing without chakra, as they often did when climbing trees or in the mountains within Mizu. They threw rocks at one another as they climbed, kicked each other, grabbed at their hands to try and make them lose balance and just plain throw each other off the giant rock. Even being eight meters up didn't stop them from trying to splatter their rival on the slabs of rock far below.

"_I'm_ gonna win!" yelled Chojuro, baring his shark teeth at the blond boy who responded by climbing even faster, his eyes focused on the peak above him.

They reached the last meter together and Chojuro tried to fling Naruto off one last time before slipping and coming short. Naruto, clearly the winner, tries to kick off and hop straight up onto the peak of the giant rock when he suddenly has to reach for a grip as his foot snags on a jagged edge in the rock's surface. Nearly falling down, Naruto looks up annoyed and in disbelief as he uses the grip of his life to grab onto the surface of the rock using chakra as Chojuro sits on the peak, grinning down at the boy in orange and blue.

"Ha! I won, bastard! You lose! Bleh!" Chojuro smirked and pulled down his lower eyelid as he flipped Naruto off.

Muttering, Naruto simply rests his forehead against the rock as he tries to catch his breath, his chakra relaxing and his hands digging into the crevices that littered the rock formation.

"You know, this island isn't even on the official map… it's an ancient island that was owned by Uzu a long time ago…" Chojuro grinned mischievously, leaning forward with his palms on his knees as he glanced down at Naruto, "Hey Namikaze," piped Chojuro, calling him by his surname only because he knew it annoyed Naruto to no end, "maybe some of your ancestors are buried in this place? Who knows? Some of them could still be alive. It's barely big enough so that we can't see all of the way across… and the small forest in the middle might have a cabin there."

Naruto glared up at Chojuro, "I don't care about that. And quit calling me Namikaze. I don't have any real attachments to the last name Uzumaki, but it's the only name that I have that will bring me my own respect and strength, not the backwash of a man I've never even met and who didn't have the decency to write me a letter or something explaining to me why he's even gone. So, to hell with him and his damn name."

Chojuro looked at him quietly, "You're serious, huh?"

The look in his eyes gave Chojuro all of the answer that he needed, but it was so shocking for him to not like his name that much.

"Well, I may as well be an '_Uzumaki'_, because I don't really have a last name."

Naruto, still clutching to the rock, looked up at his friend and rival and narrowed his eyes. "What, you don't know it?"

The blue haired boy nodded, shrugging. "It wasn't important to me. Not when I spent some time here. I'm not even from this country… it's the reason why I was so timid for such a long time after coming here three years ago."

Naruto's brow arched, "Ok. I have never seen you act timid. You've always acted like a jerk and a stand-offish ass since I met you. Not that you aren't cool to train and hang out with, but you just don't come off as shy."

Chojuro offered a disarming smile; it threw Naruto totally off balance and he had to wait a minute before he could ask. Finally, taking a breath, Naruto asked with confusion written on his face, "What's with that smile?"

"Well, we've been good friends for a while now. I have to admit, you intimidated me a bit at first, but I like to think that me getting to know you has really opened me up and made me a better person; one that could grow and become stronger much earlier than what fate's intentions had in store for me. So thank you, Naruto."

Naruto looked at him quietly for a minute and said, _whatever_. Chojuro wasn't pissed off about the flippant comment, but he did point and tell Naruto that he should learn to hide his words a little better instead of just blurting things out like that.

Chojuro then disappeared over the top, and Naruto began to climb up once more when he heard his voice call out, "Hey! Naruto, hurry up! Come take a look at this kunai that's stuck in the ground! Oh shoot, there's a chain attached to it!"

Naruto shook his head and pulled himself up and over, lying on his back at the top of the formation, his eyes looking around for the knife as described. Sure enough, a dull, rusty kunai was sitting in the middle of the top, jutting out like it was crafted out of the rock, rather than someone had somehow managed to slam it into it only for it to get stuck there. Worse yet, there was a chain attached and it was pulled straight. Somehow, though Naruto couldn't quite believe it, the chain just seemed to merge with the surface the rock.

"That's weird… it looks like it's…"

Chojuro tugged on it and the chain moved slightly, the links bending together as if there were more connected beneath the rock. "Holy shit, it's not connected!"

Naruto looked around. He still had no idea how to dispel genjutsu. He had no experience with it, so he figured that the chain or the kunai probably had one on it.

"That's weird." Naruto sighed, resting his head back against the surface of the rock as he closed his eyes. It was nice all of the way up there on the rock. The cool wind that wound up around its surface seemed to embrace him from all sides. It was as if all four of the winds of the world met at this one point and if he stayed long enough he would be lifted up into the clouds above.

Naruto smiled as he remembered his home. His friends. A pair of green eyes with no pupils.

"Hey, quit daydreaming over there and get your ass over here! I bet we can find out where this thing leads if we pull on it hard enough!"

Naruto looked up at him, groaning. "You know, for a timid guy, you sure do seek out danger every chance you get, don't you?" He rolled over and on his knees and stood up, walking up alongside Chojuro before reaching in to grab onto the chain along with him and dug his heels in deep into the ground.

"Alright… on three… ready? One. Two… _three!_"

The two boys pulled as hard as they could and at first it seemed as if nothing was happening, but suddenly a link in the chain snapped and the rock's dull surface started to glow white as the writings of an incredibly complex seal appeared around the kunai and covered the entire surface of the rock, quickly covering the rest of the giant rock formation before their eyes in a language that they didn't quite understand. When Chojuro spotted a spiral forming around the knife, he pointed and said aloud, "Naruto, look!"

Naruto turned his head to look back at the knife after following the seals as they appeared along of the surface of the rock; Naruto was surprised to see a strange seal with a spiral and spouts of characters pointing out like flames. The seal was a sun that gave off energy that the boys were bathed in, making the cool air feel suddenly like a sauna even this high up. The heat that came off of the seal radiated to the point which the boys were starting to sweat. They felt the searing heat and Naruto grabbed Chojuro by his arm and dragged him towards the edge of the rock where they began to climb down.

Painfully, but quickly, the two boys climbed down as the rock began to heat up. The crevices and nooks which they had used to climb up were getting hotter as they went down. Soon, it became impossible for them to grab on without burning their hands and so the two boys tried to slide down it using chakra to stick them to the rock as much as possible so that they slowed as they reached the floor below. As they ran off of the edge of the first couple of meters or so and landed in the sand of the beach, they were surprised to find that even the sandy floor had begun to heat up. So they ran.

Naruto made it first to the water with Chojuro barely trailing behind him. Fearful, the two boys ran out onto the surface of the water and turned back around to look at the island only when they were sure they were far enough away.

"Holt shit… what the hell is going on here?"

Naruto looked on in disbelief as the island suddenly started glowing red. It vanished, and then he turned when he saw the glow of red coming from several other smaller islands nearby.

"Ok, what's with the light's display?" Chojuro asked, shaking in his clothes.

Naruto turned away from the glowing light in the center, "We should leave. C'mon."

"Yeah, really. Let's go."

Chojuro broke out into a run and Naruto started moving behind him. The ocean below seemed to shake beneath his feet as if it were water inside of a giant bowl and someone was carrying it down the steps.

"Did you feel that?" Naruto asked, his eyes widening as he began to sink into the water. To his surprise, however, he wasn't getting wet as he sank. He looked up at Chojuro as a wall of water erected in his field of vision.

"_Naruto!"_

* * *

><p>Naruto fell on his back as the waves in the water became too much. He forced as much chakra as he could through his tenketsu to keep from falling into the water and being swept up by the giant tsunami as its speed increased.<p>

Trying to stand, Naruto brought his hand up to block the spray from getting into his eyes as separate levels of water sloshed about. He leapt up into the air, but fell short. Even when he tried to grip onto the walls of water around him, Naruto found that he only slipped off or got stuck inside of the water as it poured in to itself even as the rest of the outer edge of the swirl seemed to rise up.

Naruto landed back down in one of the edges of the humongous whirlpool. He looked down towards the center and realized just how deep it was going to end up.

"What the hell is going on here? It's like I'm being dragged into hell."

The only thing he could hear was the water around him as he stood using chakra on the water even as it poured about, dragging him in. It was scary, and Naruto thought he should probably be more scared than he was acting right now… but an image of Orochimaru's eyes in the darkness reminded him that there were much scarier things in the world than nature.

"If I'm going to face something, may as well do it head first." With that, he lept forwards to fall down towards the dark center of the whirlpool as it spun around him.

* * *

><p>"Mizukage-sama! Mizukage-sama!"<p>

Terumi Mei excused herself politely, but looked away annoyed at being interrupted when speaking with one of the ice wielding clans from the mountains as she tried to work out a diplomatic solution for the civil war that was taking place in her land.

"Cho-kun! This better be something so big that it makes that big ass whirlpool out there look like a dimple on a pig's ass, got it!"

Without flinching, Chojuro gasped, out of breath after running so far back on and off water to return to Mizu.

"Naruto! He fell into the whirlpool!"

Mei's hat slumped to the side of her head as she leaned in closer, her eyes full of killing intent that was only present when someone mentioned her age or asked why she hadn't married yet… or said anything that sounded remotely like either of those.

"_Chojuro_… Why… **the hell** were the two of you playing around the **damn whirlpool!**"

Chojuro's dream used to be to protect Mei's soft, gentle smile. The only thing he could think of now though when he saw her glaring down at him was an Akuma that wanted to eat his soul and gnash his bones in its gullet.

* * *

><p>When Naruto stood in the center, he was surprised to see a woman with a mass of tangled red hair covering her face, lying down on a giant cage made out of the same exact chains as the ones hooked up to the hoop end of the kunai. She looked pale, but shivered slightly as the cool wind made contact with her flesh for the first time in more than ten years.<p>

Naruto took a step forward on the cage made of the chains, but he immediately stopped when a sinister chakra like the smell of blood and rotting flesh came up from beneath his feet. He heard bubbling like lava in the background and finally figured out where all that heat was probably coming from. Directly below him, Naruto saw a pair of giant red eyes and a set of massive fangs.

The red headed woman suddenly shot up and a chain appeared out of her abdomen and wrapped around the boy's neck. Naruto was irked by the pain of the chain wrapping around his throat and at the same time scared of the seal he and his friend had mistakenly tampered with. When he finally saw the woman's dark eyes behind the veil of red velvet hair, Naruto screamed out.

* * *

><p>Thank you for reading. I think the main complaint right now is that the pacing is slow? Probably hasn't changed, but I'm still working on making the plot all fall together later, and I want to take my time with it anyways.<p>

I hope you all liked Kyubi's introduction. And did any of you expect to see **_her_**? Thank you, and now back to the watching Kenichi on Netflix!

Luv,

Mos


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

* * *

><p>"A boy… blond. Like my son."<p>

Naruto looked at the red headed woman with fear in his young eyes. His teeth were gnashing together as he tried to dig his hands underneath the chain to keep it from crushing his windpipe; the grip she had on him with the glowing, thorny chain had his chest heaving repeatedly as he gasped for breath and his eyes bugging out in his head as his adrenaline pumped and he reached a point of denial that he was even going to die.

_I'll make it out of this. I can loosen these chains. I won't die. I can't die. Chojuro. Sasuke. Oji-san. __**Ino**__._

Just then, at his lowest point, he heard a mumble coming from deep within the Earth. He peered down with his eyes and saw that the giant teeth behind the pitch black of the ocean floor were not moving. The red eyes that gazed up at him told him otherwise, as they seemed to narrow and expand as it continued to talk; just like a regular person uses his or her eyes subconsciously when speaking.

The voice was deep, and menacing; morbid and filled with the worst kinds of venom, even Orochimaru's voice was no comparison. "Gaki, stick your hand through the top of this wretched cage. I have something I'd like to give you."

With his jaw clenched nearly shut as he continued to struggle against the red haired woman, who didn't didn't seem to mind pulling harder on the chain to make his predicament worse than it already was, Naruto shot out poisonous spit, "You dumb bastard… Like I'm stupid enough to fall for something like that!"

The eyes lit up with fire as it inched upon him, drawing ever closer, giving Naruto a glimpse of his glowing red flesh, or whatever it was.

"_What the hell is it?" _Naruto thought.

"You walked right over me before. You and that snake summoner. Didn't notice a beast older than any of your ancestors, did you?" The voice was harsh in tone and deep, almost like an older man that had nothing but contempt for people like Naruto, human.

Naruto gulped, wondering where else demons like this one were hiding if the ocean held something so massive like the cage he was standing on. It was easily three or four times the size of the island, and a single one of the eyes peering up at him could have been the size of a small house. Naruto's head was spinning, and the heat radiated off of the monster was starting to get to him.

Just as he was about to pass out, the red head woman released her grip and dropped him on his back where he hacked and coughed, trying to fill his lungs with the air that they were deprived of.

"Kyubi," muttered the woman, her voice taking on a violent, scary tone as if she were suddenly a vessel possessed, "Banish! Down to the bottomless pit below and leave us. If not, your suffrage will be so that you would beg for the day the Shinigami strikes us all down and devours us into his barren stomach; I will hide away all light and sound and keep it from entering your festering pit."

Naruto gulped, but the annoyed sound of the Kyubi below dulled as the beast disappeared from the top of the cage and seemed to go straight back down into the water and the darkness of the ocean. Even as he did, all around him Naruto saw that walls of water around him were still spinning; and this impossibly phenomenal construct existed although everything he ever learned about the world told him that the water should be pouring inward instead of just rotating around them and parting ways. It was as if he were staring through walls of glass as the water around them spun, and yet it was clearer than any glass or crystal on Earth.

The red haired woman introduced herself, bowing her head, and in a much more reasonable, lovely sounding voice that reminded Naruto of the sweet, tart taste of strawberries, "My name is Uzumaki Kushina; I am the guardian of this gate between the mortal world and this demonic pit below us. Tell me, how is it possible that you were able to break one of the nine pillars?"

Naruto looked at the woman, surprised but pleased about the turnaround in her behavior, and smiled with only a hint of worry on his face. "I really don't know…" He looked down at his hands and wondered why it just gave way after he pulled on the chain. "It was me and a friend… we were out there climbing on a rock that he said was on one of your family's islands. I didn't ask about it, and it seemed weird in the first place… who hides something so important out in plain sight like that if they don't want someone to mess with it anyways? Don't you know that's like a 'do-not-step-on-the-grass' sign or one with a big button that says 'don't-touch'!"

Kushina stared at him and shook her head. "Only someone with the right technique could've pulled on that chain and caused this… see, let me show you. Your hands," she said, waiting for him to move forward.

_Maybe she's some kind of deity. She probably would have killed me already if she intended to do it in the first place… I can trust her._

Reluctantly, but with the same fiery look in his eyes that he always carried, Naruto stepped forward and extended his arms out, palms face-up.

Kushina looked into his bluish eyes and stepped forward as well, taking his palms gently into hers, "You know, it's strange; I was one of the two people that helped make this seal, but I forgot who we put it on… who are you, anyways?"

"Naruto," He said, his brows narrowed. "Na…Namikaze Naruto." He remembered some sage advice from the old Hokage about not using that name to introduce himself or provoke anyone, but in this case it was better to bullshit. As they say, _when in doubt_…

"Namikaze huh? Wow, that brings back some memories. I knew a Namikaze a long time ago. I can't remember what happened to him, but I remember how we met."

Naruto looked into the woman's eyes for a second before he stared down at the complex motions she was making with her fingers around his wrists and palms, tracing unseen lines over his knuckles and over the veins in the back of his hand. After a few moments, she continued.

"I hated his guts because he was so nice and popular; he even tried to be my friend when we were younger, and I needed friends back then. God, did I need friends." She said smiling and shaking her head as hair fell in front of her eyes. She took a deep breath and seemed to find some kind of peace when she was able to continue, "But anyways, I put up a rock wall in between us and completely ignored him because I thought he was an idiot for being so friendly to me, even though everyone else picked on me. They called me mean vegetable names because of my pudgy face and red hair, like tomato and habanero. I was so mad."

She pressed a particular spot in his wrist all of a sudden and Naruto gasped, his palm suddenly shaking violently, "What the hell!"

"Relax, I don't remember who I put this seal on, but I remember why and what you're supposed to do with it. You can't without me taking care of your hands for you."

Naruto looked down and saw that everywhere she began to touch his hand started to emit a faint light. Eventually, he was lined with detailed markings so small that he had to lean in a bit to realize that they weren't just lines. They were also red, like the color of her hair, and he swore he felt a sense of warmth coming from them.

"This was the first pillar. The next pillars won't be as easy to unlock and you'll need all of the help you can get tracking them. Your hands here. They'll emit this light whenever you're near one… there's also something else. This will allow you to practice a sort of forbidden jutsu only the most advanced Uzumaki ever had a chance to work with. They're all sealing jutsu, but you'll find out soon enough that every jutsu is actually a technique of sealing. And as time passes and you come to understand the parts of the seals, you will then know the secret behind chakra manipulation and its true purpose."

"This sounds all… really vague and foreboding… can't you just tell me what's going to happen?"

Kushina smirked. "You really want me to spoil it all for you so easily? I think you'll like becoming an Uzumaki. Before we were destroyed, our sealing jutsus were on an entirely different level from those of any of the other ninja. The main reason why our village was destroyed was because of a gift."

Naruto blinked, "A gift? How can a gift destroy an entire village?"

"We gave the gift of knowledge to every village with a tailed beast. Using our seals, they were able to keep their jinchuuriki from dying outright and no longer had to seal the beasts in chakra enhanced containers, which would only need to be replaced anyways in a year or so. Some of the villages were better at making the seals than others... but it was that gift of knowledge that brought the sights of all of the shinobi in the world on us, making us the target of constant attacks and breaches of peace and kinship. We became a warring country, but we didn't die with honor; our village and country was blown out like a candle in the center of a hurricane."

Naruto looked at his hands as she continued to manipulate several of the seals popping up there. When she was done, spinning two spirals on his palms and closing his hands for him, the seals disappeared and Naruto's hands were a fleshy pink again. "That was incredible."

"I guess it would have to be a Namikaze we gave the seals to. Are you his kid?" Kushina asked with a smile as they stood on top of the chains, the terribly magnificent surrounding somewhat forgotten in Naruto's mind.

Naruto's shoulders slumped, "Jeez, not you too. Everyone's been calling me the Yondaime's son. I could give a damn. I don't have any parents. Definitely no father."

Kushina frowned and nodded. "It's important to hold your family in your heart, don't you know that Naruto-kun? Without the people you love and that love you, you can end up with a weakness in your heart and die. It's like food and water." She still held his hands, and he looked into her dull eyes as they started to brighten up as she spoke, turning beautiful and blue, glowing like deep ocean waters, "We eat to sustain ourselves, filling our stomachs to bite away hunger; we drink to quench our thirsts and allow our body to run smoothly; but most importantly, we love to heal our soul. Our bodies might wither and die, but our soul is forever; a soul that knows no love is one that will have to carry on as nothing more than the sound of wind in a canyon: moaning, slow, and winded."

Naruto, blushing at the close contact and the pretty smile of the woman who held his hands, nodded slowly. "Thank you, miss, for the advice. You're very nice to me… I thought you were going to kill me."

Kushina nodded. "I almost did. We weren't expecting you to show up… instead, maybe someone like that Uchiha Madara."

Naruto shivered, as if saying the name alone dug a spike of ice into his back. "Who is that?"

Kushina shook her head, "He's not here, so he's not important right now. Right now, I need you to leave. The whirlpool will only last until the sun is in the center of the sky." She pointed up and Naruto looked up as she released his hands. "You should leave… if not, you will be stuck here for an eternity, because you were the only one who could open this seal from the outside… though I do not know why."

Naruto, going with the flow because she seemed to be the piece of the puzzle that he had been missing, asked, "So you knew my father? Namikaze Minato?"

"Yes. I loved him. He told me that… my best characteristic… well, the one he liked the most, was my red hair. I hated my hair. I plucked out one hair at a time as a last ditch effort to leave a trail when I was abducted. I was in trouble, and desperate for help. He found me, and after he saved me he told me that he had always admired it. I used to think he was such a wimp... but... well, when he said that to me…" Naruto blushed when she took hold of his hand again and it began to glow red, "my hair… it's my red thread of fate that lead me to the man I loved…"

Suddenly, her eyes widened as memories flooded in and she began to cry as realization finally dawned on her, pulling him in close for a hug as he stood in front of the taller woman. "Naruto-kun! Son, _my_ son! I missed you so much…" Her tears wet his cheek as she pressed in close to kiss him over and over on the lips and cheeks and his forehead. "I can't believe I forgot who you were… forgive me, Naruto. I've been in this water for so long… how old are you now?"

Naruto was about to respond when the water began to pour in.

Shocked, Kushina gripped him tightly once more and stepped back, "You have to leave. **Now!**"

The walls of water, as the water above them poured into the caged area, began to glow with thousands of intricate seals that lit the water red like blood. Naruto was stunned by the amazing sight, but he was surprised when Kushina rushed to one of the walls, dragging him by his hand, and slammed her palm over the surface of the water wall before her. Suddenly, a seal like a spiral opened up into a larger spiral and a hole formed in the water.

Naruto turned around, tears in his eyes as he looked at the habanero headed lady, "_Mom_?"

"Son, listen to me. I can't tell you anything more, just know that _I love you_."

She shoved him into the hole behind him and the seal activated just as the water came crashing down upon the cage and sealed up the Kyubi and his jailer once more. Naruto felt himself traveling at an intense speed under water in the hole as if he was gliding down a slide faster than a kunai flying through the air, yet he was being propelled upward and toward the surface. He saw fish and sharks and other water monsters deep in the sea, the whole world around him glittering with scaly life.

Naruto saw the end of the line coming just as the hole he was traveling through swerved out of a whale's way in the last part of the deepest parts of the ocean sea. "**O**-o-o-o-ohh! Shit!" Naruto gasped just as he hit the surface of the water and his body was propelled up into the air several meters and he came crashing back into the waves of the shoreline, landing with a large splash right in front of a crowd of spectators as they were just about to walk up towards the shore to search for him.

The secure area of the beach allowed for them to get by without being attacked by the rebel clans who constantly sought out prey that veered away from the village. It was the same route that the boys took to go out and inspect the whirlpool, because it was considered 'safe'. The spectators were mostly the Mizukage's body guards and some chunin and two jonin that had been dragged along to assist in the search party. One other person stood in the back with a Mizu forehead protector on her head with her face framed by her straight black hair, a face mask that only covered up to the bridge of her nose like Kakashi's, and a skimpy little outfit consisting of a fishnet shirt with a small black top underneath and a short skirt for her bottoms.

Naruto didn't recognize her, but he could barely see anyone clearly anyways.

"Naruto!"

_What the hell do you want?_

"Naruto, are you OK?"

"What's that on your face?"

Naruto looked back at Chojuro and Mei, as well as several other mist shinobi including one with an eye-patch over one eye. "What?"

Chojuro swiped a forehead protector from one of the chunin standing nearby, much to his chagrin, and knelt down beside Naruto and held the reflective surface in front of Naruto's face for him to see.

There, on his pudgy face, were three whisker marks on either side that weren't there before.

Just then, Naruto's powerful stamina gave out and he passed out on the beach in front of the entire crowd. His head slumping off to the side as it rolled on the hinge of his neck.

* * *

><p>"Kami, what got into you Sasuke? You sounded like the dobe when you said that." He was by himself in the Konoha library after gaining access to the basement level thanks to the Hokage. Because of the loss of his legs, Sasuke was incapable of performing any form of effective taijutsu. His upper body remained strong, but he just wasn't able to move to strike anyone; how could he? Instead, he threw himself into the scrolls of the library; there was a wealth of information at his finger tips and all he had was time. He sat alone under a light shining over his table in the large basement room with a bowl of cherry tomatoes and a glass of water to keep him company.<p>

Of course, he was referring to the promise he had made to Ino, who was a different person now because of it. She felt confident and sure of herself now, because she was so sure of him. She knew he would keep his promise, but why he wasn't sure. Had he ever been the type to really keep his word? He couldn't quite remember any time when he had been given the opportunity to prove that quality true. _It's like I channeled the blond idiot and she believed me because of it. Jeez, that's the last time I'm nice to __**anybody**__. If I don't keep my promise now she'll probably kill me…_

Thinking of the young blonde girl, Sasuke groaned. _She'll make sure I die slowly… and painfully._

Currently, he was looking into the history of the Uzumaki clan to try and give himself some clues as to where he could look for Naruto and if Mizu would've been a good place to take him in the first place. He also had a scroll detailing the past fifty years of spy work that was done in Mizu; there were some interesting notes about the attacks on the Mizukages over the years, and how volatile the village and the nation as a whole was through the years.

One other scroll he was looking at was one on summoning contracts and a listing of which contracts Konoha still owned and where to find some of the others in other villages and countries.

One in particular interested him. It was claimed in the scroll that the snakes never allowed anyone to decide whether or not they would become snake summoners. The contract would come to them, and was only in human hands long enough for the person signing it to do so with their blood. Orochimaru then, if this scroll was to be believed, was probably a scary person even as a young man since another scroll that Sasuke had gone through earlier that week mentioned a bit about the legendary sannin's childhood through his shinobi career in Konoha.

He shivered. What made a person turn against their own village? Was it something he decided, or was it done for him? Was it possible that he had a choice and Orochimaru himself decided to turn on the village, instead of trying to work with what he had in Konoha?

The Hokage would probably tell him yes.

"Sasuke-kun. How are you today?"

Jumping in his chair, Sasuke turned to see that Sarutobi had just stepped through the elevator door with a warm smile on his face.

The man had impeccable timing. "Yes, I'm doing fine, Hokage-sama. How are you today?" He asked, sincerely because of the positive attention that the man never hesitated to give him.

"Actually, I came here with purpose. There is something important I have to tell you."

Sasuke nodded and was about to turn his chair around when the shinobi god placed his palm on his shoulder and nodded at him before taking a seat at the side of the table. "Oh, those are my favorite kind of tomatoes. Do you mind?"

"No, help yourself, Hokage-sama." Sasuke said, looking back into his scroll.

The old man smiled, "Thank you, young man. Now, the _good news_ is that Naruto is safe."

Sasuke looked up from his scroll and stared on, waiting patiently for the man to continue. The Hokage looked at him quizzically for a second, but Sasuke couldn't tell; he was a man who could hide his motives and emotions well.

Continuing, the Hokage reached into the bowl and took a few of the cherry tomatoes, popping one into his mouth and chewing on it for a second before swallowing it down and continuing. "The bad news is that he is, in fact, in Mizu. I'm not sure why they have him, or why they're communicating with us at all. The only thing that was mentioned in the scroll was that _Namikaze Naruto, _who they also said claims to be _Uzumaki _Naruto," said the Hokage with a smirk.

During the pause, Sasuke smirked. _That's him alright. He would be too stubborn to give up trying to pretend like he isn't the Yondaime's son. It's so obvious, I can't believe that no one else figured it out just by looking at him… had I looked closer, and had we stayed good friends… maybe if Itachi hadn't… _

Shaking his head, Sasuke continued to listen as Hiruzen began to say, "… is in the village, safe. And he's healthy. One other good thing is that Orochimaru is apparently no longer with them. They will send a message every few months to give us more information on him and on their terms of his abduction. I intend to also find out why they have participated in his abduction by harboring him… I did hear that there was a new Mizukage, so… oh, forgive me. I am rambling now, Sasuke-kun. Do you have any questions?"

Sasuke shook his head. "No, but continue, please. The whole point of my study here is to get him back safely to Konoha."

"You're a very diligent student… and a better friend. You should be proud of yourself, son."

Sasuke smiled slowly almost unsure of the compliment, though he was getting more of them from the old man as time went on. "Thank you, sir."

"Don't thank me yet… I have another reason for being here." Said Sarutobi. He paused for a moment as he gobbled down some more tomatoes. "These are wonderful. You have a good eye for picking your food, don't you?"

Ignoring his compliment, Sasuke asked, "Forgive me sir for my forwardness, but what is that other reason…?"

The Hokage arched a brow and nodded. "I see. Straight down to business are we? Do you know about the scroll of sealing?"

"That's the same one Naruto had when Orochimaru attacked, right?"

The Hokage nodded. "Right. He told me once that he had managed to learn the first jutsu listed there, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, but not the actual one listed on the scroll because he wasn't able to create enough of the bunshins for it to be the one listed on the scroll, which was Tajuu Kage Bunshin."

"How many clones did he have to make? All at once?"

"Oh, yes. All at once, one thousand or more! It's quite a technique. Even for me, especially in my old age, I cannot use it effectively in a fight and I don't recommend anyone else do so either, but learning a jutsu like that is important for building up one's chakra reserves and skill… anyways, Sasuke."

The Hokage closed his eyes for a second as he mauled over something in his head. He opened them and looked Sasuke directly in the eyes with a fierce gaze.

"I would like for you to take the Hokage Scroll of Sealing and learn from it as many jutsu as you are able."

Astonished, and honored, Sasuke hesitated.

"Are you sure it should be in the hands of a child like me? And in my wheelchair, I probably couldn't make use of all of the jutsu there…"

"Sasuke, you can do anything you want in this life… if one day you wanted to design a taijutsu stance for a person sitting in a chair or a wheelchair, it is possible. Do you know how I know this?"

Sasuke shook his head, surprised when the man hit the nail right on the head and cracked open the gate as all of his doubts began to pour out and get stirred about.

Sarutobi smiled, "The will of fire. Everyone knows that we all have chakra. We use it every day and, like fire, it can blaze brilliantly or wither and die. But just like fire, chakra can be rekindled and flare back to life with the right tools and know-how… and a lot of guts and determination."

When he saw that flame in the boy's eyes growing, Sarutobi smiled.

_Orochimaru… I had hoped to instill the will of fire into you and teach you the true way of life as a shinobi. I hope that with this boy my life's greatest mistakes and failures will mend._

"Thank you, Sarutobi-dono." Sasuke rubbed at his cheek just underneath his right eye. He turned his head away to hide the tears, and the Hokage laughed, his own tears showing.

"No, thank you, Sasuke-dono. And don't worry about crying when you're happy… those tears are the best tears to cry."

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><p>Luv,<p>

Mos


	16. Chapter 16: A New Player

The rooms were dark as the electricity for the entire village had gone out; in front of his vision was a shroud of inkiness that smothered everything around it and swallowed up all of the light that dared dance within its domain. The darkness was indeed overwhelming; only desperate love across great distances could dare compare.

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><p>Chapter 16<p>

A New Player

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. This is a fan made work simply glorifying the great characters and plot of the original. Enjoy.<p>

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><p>With the darkness came uncertainty; the populace of the village was in a tumult, as there was still plenty of time until it was time to go to bed and it was said that a great wind from the southeast was coming. With uncertainty came fear; even the hardened and weathered people of the mountainous Nonoko Village in the Land of Water feared the arrival of the great storm from the south. They were each of them warriors as the village produced almost purely warriors and relied heavily on sieges upon their weaker neighbors and trade with their stronger ones. The electricity was provided by a single source: an old reactor that was confiscated from a village further down the river that cut its path through a valley in one of the many mountains. The people of Nonoko were one of the main causes for the state of civil war that the Land of Water found itself enveloped in. It was not surprising; though the village was small, each of their warriors possessed a powerful kekkai genkai that allowed for the village to go unchecked for some time now. But… even the strongest of warriors had weaknesses.<p>

With fear came chaos and the attacks began.

A group of shinobi covered in a black and dark blue pattern to take advantage of the darkness made its way up the mountainside. They travelled swift as panthers, climbing the branches of trees and using them to springboard them along the unforgiving terrain. Their steps were silent and they were cunning enough as to not leave a noticeable trail along their path.

The group landed silently just behind the peak of the mountain and they crouched low so as to not be spotted by the keen eyes of the cunning Nonoko warriors.

"Tight formation. We should be able to sneak down into those trees quickly if we hold a henge as a group."

"A tumbling boulder?"

"That sounds about right… we could also go down as a pack of wolves."

"Whatever, just decide on something."

"Wolves, definitely."

"Affirmative, head out."

The bickering between the youngest of the group was not lost upon the leader of the infiltration group.

"Remember our mission, young ones. You are only six-teen, do not get yourselves killed needlessly."

The two shinobi that had been deciding on the henge nodded toward their leader and formed the two seals each required for a group of six henge.

When they released their chakra, the mountainside became home to a pack of wolves dashing along the edge of the mountain and heading down toward the forest growing on its airy side. Anyone looking up might have noticed the animals, but it wasn't a rare occurrence as the wolves in the area were known as 'mountain bears' because of their large size and affinity for the high, cold terrain.

When the group landed, they split up into a split formation of three teams of two. The two young ones were sent together to sneak into the village while the other groups sabotaged the highly-guarded food and water supply stores.

The village was built like a fortress on the side of the mountain on the lip of a cave. Much of its populace lived on a plateau within a range of mountains further along a road that was carved out after a giant landslide that nearly crushed the entire village where it originally rested before at the base of the mountain. Using powerful earth country jutsu from foreign prisoners, the shinobi of Nonoko made the mountain their home by leveling out what was left of the peak after the massive landslide.

When the two young shinobi made their way to the outskirts of the village, they saw that their counterparts were in their places on either side of the giant cave. There were apparently two routes to two different supply shares, and the third team within the group, theirs, was only there to make an assassination attempt and draw attention off of the supplies.

"Are you ready, Naruto?"

"Yeah, Chojuro."

"C'mon." Their henge gone, the duo climbed up over the walls of the fortress of a village and landed up top with barely enough time to slip into the darkness as a group of sentries posted on the walls passed them by in the darkness underneath the clouded, moonless night.

Any noise they may have made within the village walls was smothered by the loud winds. If that weren't bad enough, it began to rain down upon them as simply as if the knob on a faucet had been turned. Naruto tugged up slightly on his mask as they snuck past the posted guards on a nearly barren street. The way the village was governed, it was very much like a small dictatorship. Everything was being watched at all times and its residents were all given paltry amounts of food, water and clothing and lived in shacks while they 'supreme ambassador' lived in a mansion at the highest point in the village with a moat and another, taller, wall surrounding the estate. They also had set hours where they could be outside of their homes, and all of them worked for the ambassador and 'for the village', but none of them brought home any money or food that they earned. It was all given, and so the village's morale was often thought to be weak.

Fortunately for Naruto's group, they knew the truth and, although they did not understand it, the village's warrior spirit was never broken, even if it meant that all glory ever attained would be in another person's name. Their spirit had become some sort of honor-bound code, like samurai.

Chojuro, raising his hand for Naruto to halt, pressed up against a wall and slowly turned around to look past the corner. He caught the eye of a guard within the courtyard of the first wall and immediately he turned back around and pointed up just as the posted guard dashed toward them. When the guard rushed around the corner to catch the duo, he was surprised to see that there was no one there.

When Naruto cleaned off the kunai he used to dispatch the guard on the poor soul's neck, Chojuro suddenly began rummaging through the man's pockets to try and find something of use to them for the completion of their mission. They pulled his body away to a storage room along the wall and used four kunai and some wire to hang him firmly against the ceiling where there was no light for him to be seen with.

They left the room with the door closed and travelled along an obscured cobble-stone path that lead them up to the main road in the village about a quarter of the size of Konoha and one half the size of Mizu. When they reached the main living areas, they were surprised to see so many people guarding these houses and to see that its streets which would normally be busy in any other city were so dark and uneventful. The power going out didn't help much, and as the duo moved along they could see that not a single candle was lit in any of the houses as they passed.

"It's strange here… you remember what Ao-sensei said about their kekkai genkai and not to fight any of them directly?"

"Yeah… because they have the ability to drain water from their opponent's body using only their touch."

"Right. Dehydration would be the least of your worries… you'll end up like a smoked stick of beef jerky if you don't be careful."

"Yeah, I got it."

When they moved in further into the village, they came upon the second wall and hid away from the main paths and streets to come up with a plan for breaching the fortress at the heart of the village.

It didn't take them long to realize that trying to sneak past the guards posted on the top of the wall was clearly impossible; the bastard must've been constantly attacked and assassination attempts must have been commonplace because it seemed as if the bulk of the guard had congregated at this central point.

It was time for the boys to wait.

After a few minutes, Naruto heard the faint sounds of someone yelling out toward the large walls from a distance. There was some unrest in the guard at the top of the wall, and as the yelling grew louder so did the anxiety apparent in the guards who quickly sent someone to tell their ambassador the news of the events that were unfolding at their supply stores. He looked to Chojuro and nodded at him to let him know that it was time to go.

Naruto turned to look in that direction and saw that black smoke was starting to rise up like a signal. The two young boys prepared themselves as the guard that inhabited the large walls made their way down and opened the front gate, leaving it open and unguarded just long enough for Naruto and Chojuro to slip by undetected. The few guards that were in place had gone together, like fools, to inform their leader of the problems with the supplies.

When the duo came before the mansion, they looked up and skillfully threw their grappling hooks up onto a high ledge just a few floors below the seventh floor. The last thing they wanted to do was tip off a chakra detector in the vicinity by using their chakra to scale the building instead of the classic alternative.

Naruto arrived at the end of the rope first and threw a leg up over the railing where he caught his hook and retrieved it only to spin it up once more and fling it onto the roof where they planned to climb to.

The lack of a light source made it surprisingly simple to scale the building and not once did they have to worry about being spotted, though they were careful enough to climb quietly so as not to attract anyone's attention.

When they picked the lock on the stairway at the roof of the building, they took one last look over the edge of the building to see if the guard had been replenished. Luckily for them, each of the guards had to bring with them a candle to hold up in the darkness to see anything, while the two boys had trained for the past week in pitch black surroundings so that their eyes would grow accustomed to and thrive in the darkness.

There was one candle, one guard had apparently been sent back.

"Better now than never. We trained hard all this week for this one night and the electricity was cut to give us an advantage. It's even hurricane season and the heavy winds should cover our escape after the job is done… I'm ready to go."

"Same here, but don't be so anxious, Chojuro."

The boy grinned, his shark-like teeth hidden behind the shinobi mask.

Their target was supposed to be at the top floor. His name was Nonoko Yon, the founder of the village and a bastard of a man who put himself far beyond his people. When the boys arrived, however, they were surprised to see that the lights on this floor had turned on. They had just finished scaling the building, and neither of them remembered seeing the lights on anywhere else. Naruto looked out a window as they stood in their camouflage drab. None of the lights were on in the rest of the village. He frowned.

"Fuck, he's got a generator… does that mean we should turn back?" Chojuro furrowed his brow as he looked toward the large door which led to their target.

"No… we should do this now. The fighting will never end if he's still in power. We may be able to buy some time for the Mizukage by just destroying their supplies, but these guys are some of Mist's worst enemies and we can't just let them run along freely doing what they will."

Chojuro nodded, rarely surprised nowadays at the commanding and serious tone that Naruto carried with him ever since the incident in Mizu's waters.

"I knew you'd make it sound reasonable to throw my life away… alright, let's do this."

Chojuro followed Naruto up the steps to the doorway and they set several explosive tags around the handles and the hinges. Naruto held a few smoke bombs at the ready while Chojuro activated the tags which were on a ten second timer. He knocked annoyingly loud on the front door and ran away from it while Naruto stood about three meters away, waiting with the bombs at the ready.

The door opened just before the explosions went off, knocking the door off its hinges and potentially killing anyone standing a meter on either side of the door.

Naruto pulled the corks off of the smoke bombs and shook them up before allowing the chemicals within their clay containers to interact with the molecules of air as they were exposed to them and then immediately rolled the two bombs into the center of the room. Using the smoke, Naruto and Chojuro moved along the walls of either side of the large room around the smoke and allowed its obscuring properties to cause more confusion in the room as the irritating smoke cleared away eventually. There were loud yells and yelps as the smoke bombs went off and as the group of people standing in the center of the room began to shuffle around, searching blindly within the smoke.

Naruto stood behind the chair in the center of the room where a man was sitting with a purple robe on and several rings on his fingers. The young man leaned forward and pressed a kunai up to his neck, but as he was about to slit the man's throat, he saw that the group of bodyguards that had survived the blast were now protecting someone in the center of their mass by shielding him with their bodies.

"You have the wrong man, son." Naruto pressed the kunai even further, drawing blood and making the man in the chair yelp, but there was no reaction from the guards.

He was silent. Their plan to cause confusion had backfired and left the two of them confused. Chojuro had dispatched the two guards that were left standing at the chair at the end of the hall, but it turned out to be a trap.

Even more surprising, was that the person who stepped out of the mass of bodyguards was a young woman.

"Hey, that isn't the target…"

Naruto sighed and was glad that they were at least not captured yet. They had a chance to fight their way out, if they were smart about it.

"We came here to kill the man sitting in this chair…"

Naruto looked down at the man as he suddenly stared up at him, wide-eyed. In one swift motion, Naruto acted as if he slit his throat, drawing a little bit of blood for dramatic effect, and spun around the chair so that he standing in front of the man to shield from view the fact that he had just stuck a roll of explosive tags in the man's mouth. He stared back at Naruto with wide eyes, a look of disbelief in his eyes as he shook like a leaf.

"What a waste… you killed a man with a family, just so you know."

"Every man is potentially someone's father, son, brother… woman someone's mother, daughter, sister… If I worry about the bystanders who are affected by a person's death every time I kill, I couldn't possibly be a ninja. We are only tools, you see. It is the leaders of our villages who decide when it is right or wrong to take a life."

The two of them stared each other down for a moment while Chojuro's spine straightened up just a little bit. _Jeez. Anymore tension and there'd be an aura coming off of those two. Who the heck is she?_

The young, red-headed woman nodded. "You have a way with words… well, c'mon. If you give up we won't kill you. Let me see your face." She ordered with a hard grin. "If you're cute… maybe I can find **some** use for you… you can be another of my servants."

"Are you Nonoko Yon?" Naruto asked, ignoring her demand.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to let a dead man and-or servant know who I really am. No, Nonoko Yon is no longer among the living."

The duo furrowed their brows behind their masks. That was startling news. Why were they sent here then? Was the info received on the leader of the Nonoko Village faulty?

"I _did_ kill that stupid fuck… so I guess that would make me the heir to the Village and the clan. That would mean you could take up your problems with me."

Chojuro asked, breaking in between."So… who are you?"

She smiled. "You might know me as one of the sound _four_. My name is Tayuya… don't you fucking forget it."

Chojuro was blushing behind his mask, "I know I won't!"

Naruto sighed. "Nice to meet you Tayuya… I suppose it couldn't hurt showing a dead woman and-or servant who _I _really am." He pulled on his mask and allowed it to fold at his neck, showing his face as he pulled back the bandana that covered his bright blond hair, though his headband with the symbol for Mizu was still wrapped securely around his head.

Tayuya gawked, "Wow, you're not half bad! Cute whiskers!"

Chojuro blinked, looking at Naruto meanwhile thinking, _Lucky bastard!_

Naruto then grabbed the man who sat on the chair and smacked him hard on the face. He had passed out earlier from shock. He woke up with a start and stood up quickly when Naruto grabbed him by his shoulder to drag him toward the ball of body guards at the pretty red head standing in front of them.

"Oh? He's alive?" Tayuya said, pouting her lips as she brought her index finger up to touch them.

When the man landed on his knees before her, she smirked and walked past him toward Naruto, sauntering over saucily like she knew drove men crazy; a talent developed over the years of being a woman in charge. "Are you soft or just kind-hearted under that cool exterior?"

Naruto smirked when she stood in front of him, eyeing him with her pretty eyes and long lashes. Her eyes widened though when she heard the violent explosion come from behind her. She turned around in time to see the ball of fire that swallowed up and fried her bodyguards and servants to a crisp, killing the man with the roll in his mouth for sure and injuring a few of the others. With her back turned she heard the amused words roll off of the blue-eyed assassin's tongue. "I certainly am not soft."

She turned back around only to see Naruto's kunai-in-hand swipe down over her head, successfully knocking her unconscious.

Chojuro said nothing, he only looked at the mess of the bodies on the floor and pitied the dead and said a silent prayer for the living.

"We have what we came for." Naruto said, grabbing the young redhead by the collar and pulling her over onto her stomach so that he could tie her arms behind her back and her ankles together. He picked the girl up onto his shoulder and walked past the mess of bodies on the floor.

Chojuro nodded and they smashed the window just outside the door to the hall using a grappling hook; that same hook Naruto threw up over his head outside the window and arched it so that it hooked the roof again. He then leapt off of the building with Tayuya over his shoulder and used his feet and well placed chakra on the rope to help him slide down the rope swiftly.

Naruto landed in the courtyard with the screaming Tayuya; she had come-to halfway down the building and the speed that he was flying down the side of it made it seem as if he had some sort of death wish.

"Are you fucking insane! Holy shit, why the hell did you have to go so damn fast! God damn it!" Her cursing didn't stop for a few seconds until a flickering light bulb caught her eye. She looked around and saw her bodyguards looking on in confusion as the lights came back on.

"One of you mother fuckers: help me!" She screamed; normally composed, the red head had broken down to crying for assistance and cursing, the latter being something that she hadn't resorted to for years.

Naruto sat Tayuya down on her knees and deflected a straight punch by leaning back, kicking his assailant's elbow and then reversing his momentum by bending at the knee and leaning his body forward hard enough to kick the man in the chest with his same leg.

Naruto turned around and caught an axe kick only a second away from hitting squarely on the top of his head and easily snapping the vertebrae in his neck. He held the bare leg with his gloved hands and his attacker simply smirked at him behind red face paint; a customary guerilla warfare tactic of the Nonoko's strongest warriors that is used to strike fear in their opponents and instill recognition, and with it a sense of foreboding, within their enemies' ranks.

Naruto was surprised when his opponent leaned into his axe kick and gripped at the back of Naruto's head just as he reached back to cover himself properly lest the Nonoko warrior get a grip on his scalp and sap every last bit of moisture in his brain. To the attacker's surprise, his leg was still blocked by the pinch of Naruto's elbows brought together as he covered the back and sides of his head with his arms.

Unable to reach past Naruto's strong hands, he let go only after kneeing the blond in his rib cage with his free leg and then spun himself backwards by pushing on his raised leg. When he landed, he took a few steps back and brandished a tanto; a straight edge blade that was shorter than a katana or ninja-to, but longer than a standard kunai or dagger.

Chojuro landed behind Naruto in the large courtyard, his kunai at hand. When he surveyed the area, he saw that through the main gate a swarm of furious-looking Nonoko warriors and their red faced leaders came charging back in to possibly break every single bone in their bodies before throwing them off of the giant balcony and doing it again.

"Naruto, I think it's about time that we head out now..."

Naruto's annoyance with Chojuro's lack of tact only doubled when the redface in front of him smirked with widening eyes. "I see. So you are Namikaze Naruto... how interesting that you seem to have such a obvious tattoo on your face, considering your popularity with the shinobi world; is that something that you had done recently or were your parents fools and had it done when you were a child?"

Naruto grinned and looked at him with focused, narrowed eyes as he held out his own kunai to parry away a swipe with the tanto the man carried. "Look who's talking! I heard you guys had a bloodline limit, but I didn't know that it made your face turn red like a tomato. I think that mine is a little easier to cover up than yours is, don't you think?"

"Hah. We paint our faces to show our courage, rank and love for the clan. I suppose it would be hard for you to relate; I hear you have no family."

Naruto swiped back with his knife and kicked at the man's shin with his heel only for it to be dodged and his first strike to be parried just within a breath of cutting the man's throat out. They followed through with their own attacks at the same time and ended up caught in the middle in bout of power as Chojuro shook his head and began to unravel the sword on his back just as the mob of Nonoko swarmed the staircases that lead up to the main courtyard.

"Only a brother," Naruto said, to the redface's surprise as they continued to fight for the upper hand.

Chojuro spun his broadsword above his head and smirked at the group climbing up the tall stairs before he slammed downwards with the sword and followed through by leaning his body into the blade. Chakra erupted around them and the warriors stopped for a second until nothing happened.

Chojuro waited, but still, nothing had happened.

"Shit, uh, you! Hey, it's time to go!" He pointed at Naruto, remembering his earlier blunder as he tried to think of a way to get Naruto's attention. He placed his sword on his back again and ran as fast as he could to retrieve Tayuya.

"You won't be going anywhere anytime soon, will you? We only got started!" With a loud yell, Naruto's opponent spun around and slashed wildly at the blond from an angle he wasn't expecting. Naruto turned his head and caught the blade using the steel headband of hidden mist, earning him a clean slice over its metal surface through the hidden mist symbol and just along his eyebrow where the tip of the blade barely missed his eye.

When Naruto recovered, he wiped away the blood and threw his kunai haphazardly at his attacker who deftly swayed past it. It sailed lazily into the crowd behind the redface just as the mass swarmed over the top of the staircases and onto the courtyard, stampeding through to squash the would-be assassins.

Without his weapon, Naruto seemed easy prey as the man stepped forward the little distance that he needed to disembowel Naruto's gut. Just before closing the distance he yelled with passion, "The world should know that it was Nonoko Bankei that struck down the Yellow Flash's only son!"

But when he saw Naruto's hands closed together in a tiger seal, it was too late.

The explosion caught the both of them, obliterating the crowd and throwing both Bankei and Naruto down the courtyard towards the front of the estate. Right before Naruto's limp body hit the jagged steps leading up to the estate, Chojuro reached out a hand and caught the blond by the scruff of his shirt and dragged him in behind a fence along with the gagged Tayuya who was screaming coarsely, muffled by the gag.

Naruto's sense reclaimed, the duo carried off with their spoils past the deadly explosion of the powerful tag that was used mostly during wartime because of its lack of subtlety. To put it in layman's terms, it was Samurai-grade, not Shinobi-grade.

They passed the sprawled out corpse of Bankei as he lay with his face caught in between two of the steps and his arms and legs splayed out in a horrid fashion. Naruto cupped his head, still dizzy from the blast as they left for the walls of the fortress-like estate and scaled their steps to rappel down the side of the gargantuan walls that surrounded the Nonoko's mansion.

When they met up with the smirking leader of their group, who was traveling slowly down the road using a donkey and a cart filled with stolen supplies, they turned to watch the fireworks as the giant building burned to the ground after a massive explosion blew out each and every floor, completely leveling it.

"Even though I didn't ask you to find a wife during the mission: well done, to the both of you." He promptly smacked Tayuya's butt as she lie there in paralyzing fear, a pitiful moan escaping her gagged lips. "She's not a bad catch, is she? Who is she again?"

"She is their current leader."

"Oh!" He scoffed, "Well, I'll be! Well played! Though, seriously, you could use a little padding on that escape route of yours." He smiled at Naruto and Chojuro, who were understandably silent as they watched the building that they didn't set to blow up explode. His smile flattened out and he furrowed his brows in confusion. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"We weren't the ones that blew up that building."

Chojuro nodded when their leader looked over at him for confirmation.

"Then, who did?"

Naruto closed his eyes and lied back on the cart as they rode beside the supplies and the tied up girl who glared at him with angry, pretty eyes.

He pulled out his kunai and pointed it at her face, making her flinch and showing her that he had his eye on her and that in no way would he underestimate her. He stared into her eyes quietly for the rest of the trip, but what he was really looking for he didn't find in the girl; it was in the reflection in her eyes that he found himself and a shadow resting its hand on his shoulder.

A pair of yellow serpentine eyes were staring back at him between the batting of this girl's lashes.

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><p>"Tayuya, kunoichi of hidden sound… due to your heinous crimes against the Land of Water under the banner of the Nonoko tribe, and those committed by your master against all of humanity; I sentence you to death by noon tomorrow. You will die alone, in a cage, suffocated and drowned by hanging in a pool of water; the water being like your very presence which suffocates our own. I hope that your life of servitude to the Sannin was worth this ultimate reward. Dismissed."<p>

With that, Tayuya of sound was taken away with handcuffs that were designed to keep her wrists apart together with a shackle collar on her throat.

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><p>Sorry for the long wait. I am working hard and playing harder; spending a lot of time working with kids and dating this sexy librarian that managed to catch my nose in her book. Heh heh. Take it as you like it.<p>

I'll be posting a little more, and the length of this chapter was a little "I'm sorry" gift to you all, but to shed some light on this new chapter, yes, there has been a time skip. His age was revealed there. So you can assume that most everyone else is two years younger from the rookie 9.

As far as the characters and interactions that have occurred in my last and/or previous chapters that some of you felt to be questionable, if I put something in this story it's likely for a good reason. Believe it or not; in the end, you'll have to read to find out.

I hope you enjoyed yourselves. Until next time.


	17. Chapter 17

The stars that night shined brighter than they had for the longest time; like a draught of distant light, their presence was blotted out by an abnormally large system of clouds that were swirling into their night sky. They cleared tonight as if somehow the gods and heavens above were signaling down to her that if she could only pull aside the veil that covered her mind and judgment then the heavens would be hers to grasp. Tayuya looked up and saw all of the eyes of the heavens staring down upon her and the end of her days, and she smirked and shook her head as the Mizukage spoke, her eyes having been pristinely focused upon the redhead in silence for a few moments beforehand.

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><p>Chapter 17<p>

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><p>"Tayuya, kunoichi of hidden sound… due to your heinous crimes against the Land of Water under the banner of the Nonoko tribe, and those committed by your master against all of humanity; I sentence you to death by noon tomorrow. You will die alone, in a cage, suffocated and drowned… by hanging in a pool of water; the water being like your very presence which suffocates our own. I hope that your life of servitude to the Sannin was worth this ultimate reward." Terumi Mei looked over to Naruto and Chojuro, who were standing with their hands in front of them. She smiled. "It is a happy day today, here, in front of our royals from the capitol and our ambassadors to the Daimyo, and I am happy to see that our very own Chojuro and Naruto were the ones to topple the Nonoko. I am very proud of you; both of you."<p>

_Get on with it, you old ass bitch. _Tayuya thought, annoyed but not stupid enough to get herself killed tonight rather than give her an entire night to try and escape from whichever confines they place her under. She looked around the large hall, annoyed at all of the satisfied looking grins and pompous smirks that were on the faces of these 'royal' people and the 'ambassadors'. They all looked like trash. One man stood out a bit, but Tayuya couldn't place just why. He was tall and lean, and his smile reminded her of someone; worst of it all, he was staring right at her, and she felt sick to her stomach.

Tayuya looked over to the two young men that the Mizukage spoke of and saw them bowing slightly in recognition to the compliment, but they remained quiet. She was going to turn back to look at the Mizukage when Naruto looked her way. Her glancing eyes slowly came to lock onto his stern, sharp ones. She wasn't sure what exactly was dancing in his eyes, but to her it looked like fire; she remembered one time she spent a night alone in a cave, hiding out away from the freezing rain, and the fire that she lit was the only company that she kept that night, its warmth embracing her, loving her, giving her the sweetest dreams. She wouldn't be fooled, however, because fires could also burn, engulf, and were sometimes even unquenchable to the point that they could devour everything dear and important to her. His eyes flickered, even as she forced herself to look away lest the quivering flame in her chest build up and overtake her.

When the Mizukage dismissed the small gathering of Mizu's top shinobi, Tayuya glanced again and found that Naruto was still looking at her. He only turned away when Chojuro placed a palm upon his shoulder and persuaded him out of his trance.

He nodded at Chojuro and followed him along behind the Mizukage and one of her main body guards, Ao. He was followed by the same woman who had grown in rank recently in Mizu; her name was Ai, and she was a mercenary hired from one of the anti-revolutionists of the area. Her body was wrapped entirely in fishnet with only a tight black top and a slim pair of short shorts that hugged her hips and buttocks firmly. She long ago removed the half-mask and replaced it with purple and white face paint in the shape of tiger lilies with little white dots on the purple pedals; her hair had grown out quite a bit through the years, and her luscious silk curtain draped over the back of her neck in descending ponytails tied meticulously behind her back to take advantage of her smooth hair that fell and dripped like cream but was sturdy like wire; she was a woman who understood the value of utilizing one's bodily charms to accomplish one's goals. Rumor had it that she was a woman of many enemies; those were the wives of all of the men that she has subdued.

There was a big grin on Chojuro's face as they left. Chojuro had his eyes glued to her voluptuous backside as they walked back to the Mizukage's office for some more debriefing and to leave the oblivious redhead to her prison cell and her final meal, permitted due to Naruto's insistence.

* * *

><p>Naruto and Chojuro were walking out of the Mizukage's office and Chojuro decided on his own to lead Naruto to where the execution would be held. Naruto thought of the redheaded girl and frowned, telling Chojuro that he wasn't feeling well and headed back to his apartment which he began renting only a few months ago.<p>

* * *

><p>Later that evening, Tayuya sat alone on a small bed with a tray full of food sitting by the door to her cell and her hands left unshackled as the cell was occupied by the markings of a chakra suppressing seal; a powerful one at that.<p>

As she sat there, hunger slowly getting the better of her, she closed her eyes and thought of the young blond man and his whiskers and pretty eyes. There were certain things about him that were alluring and other things that made him seem normal; easily attainable, yet forbidden or exotic.

Her hands found their way to the hem of her pants as her breath stilled. She felt no shame; if she were to die tomorrow, then getting off today wouldn't be that bad of an idea. Spending a few hours alone in the dark with bars on all sides (even the ground, she dug through the dirt and checked) ate at one's morale and dignity. Right before she started getting into it, she heard the closing of iron bars as the main entrance to the prison cells opened up. In her mind's eye, she had envisioned Naruto making his way in to free her, or at least take advantage of her and give her a sliver of pleasure before she departed from the world of the living.

"Tayuya. My, my… forever the mischievous girl."

Her eyes widened as if the shinigami himself appeared before her, claiming her soul before its time.

"_Orochimaru-sama._"

His golden eyes hovered in the background as a knowing smirk crept onto his face like a glowing, slithering worm in the darkness. He said nothing, only walking up to her cage to take a closer look. He saw the plate on the floor, then looked up at her and could tell she was famished. He turned away slowly and nodded his head, showing all of the intent to leave her to her fate.

"Orochimaru-sama! Please! Please, get me out of here! Why come here if only to walk away when I need you the most?" Her hands gripped at the bars fiercely as she shook them, anger making its way onto her face as he continued to walk.

He did not turn around. Tayuya was growing desperate. "I _need_ you!" She cried tears threatening to break at the edges of her eyes as memories of her time with her master flooded through.

He stopped soon after she said that, just before he stepped out the door. He seemed to maul over his options, simply standing there and staring through the front door to the barren prison; very few prisoners were kept in Mizu for longer than a day.

"Foolish child. What you need and want have never been important; I never once asked you what your aspirations were, only that I understood your need to become stronger. That was given, my debt paid and yours only just beginning. I will leave you here, and you will die; you will become the martyr necessary for a proper rebellion by the tribe whose power I placed under your once-capable hands. Even as a martyr, your death and your body will continue to serve my will so long as I please…" He smiled wickedly at her, turning his head just slightly as he crept into the light coming from outside the large room. He turned to leave, but stopped and looked back, saying, "You should ask for some of the local honeypearl leaf to suck on as you are thrown into the depths. Perhaps it will make your time under water less miserable."

His smile slowly disappeared and he brought his hand to his face, changing its appearance as he did so often in front of her before, and stepped out using a powerful henge and realized that he was one of the royals who were visiting from the Land of Water's capitol just beyond its crescent mountain border. The Nonoko tribe was on Mizu's side, while the capitol was nearly secure thanks to the mountainous region and the fact that they had powerful samurai and ninja protecting the place; she had tried to break in once before but was nearly killed. That was when Sakon, a friend of hers, died; his brother, Yakon, someone she couldn't stand in the least, died a few months later.

Tayuya, in despair, dropped to her knees with her hands still on the cage and her eyes lost in the dark as her master left her to die.

After a few minutes, she slowly crawled over to the bed in her cell and began to lie down. She looked up when she heard the cage rattle again at the entrance and this time the two guards walked through with a visitor.

Tayuya looked on wearily as the young blond made his way to her cage. He looked at her first and then her food just lying there waiting for the roaches to come and claim.

"You're lucky there's a fucking cage in between us; I would strangle you and squeeze out your eyeballs for making such short work of me."

He looked at her plate again and reached through the chakra suppressing barrier of the cage and picked up the plate, extending it out to her. "You should eat; you'll need it for tomorrow."

"Why, for when I'm dead? I don't think a last meal will help me any."

"It might make you feel better… who knows, give you a little extra strength in your leg muscles."

Tayuya stared at him quietly for a second before narrowing her eyes. "What are you saying?"

"Just eat, I feel bad enough as it is. I find it hard to believe that you acquired power of that camp all on your own… who put you there? The daimyo? The Mizukage…?"

She smirked, shaking her head, but her spine shivered when she heard him whisper, "Orochimaru?"

"What the hell do you know about him?" She asked, glaring and looking at the plate in his hand. "I'm not going to eat that shit so put it down already or eat it yourself, you asshole."

Naruto let out a drawn out sigh. "Listen, just eat it already, huh? If you do, I'll tell you how I know Orochimaru… it's an interesting story."

She looked him in the eyes and saw a glimpse of that fire from before; it was the warming, loving kind, so she took the plate and began eating the rice and was surprised to find that it was nice and hot, as if it had just been warmed up. She looked at his hand and saw a small flame slowly disappear as he expelled his chakra. What surprised her, the most, was that he was able to use his chakra even though his hand was inside of the chakra suppressing seal!

"How did you do that? I can't use a lick of chakra in here."

Naruto smiled. "It's what an attorney would call a 'loop-hole'. Since I am standing outside, the suppression of chakra does not affect me because my coils are outside of the barrier. My tenketsu cannot be blocked because what this seal does is suppress the molding of chakra in the first place, not plug up tenketsu; since the barrier is not able to reach my center, where my chakra comes from, it has no effect on me. You are standing inside, and it is suppressing your ability to mold chakra, not chakra from entering the seal. Interesting, how these seals work, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess… so, why are you here? You feel sorry that I'm being executed? Why? Because I'm a woman?"

Naruto frowned, "Well, you weren't a part of that clan."

"How do you know that?"

"Your red hair is a dead giveaway: not a single one of the warriors that were there had red hair, and not only that, but they all only had black hair and blue eyes. Your eyes, though they're very pretty, are brown, and it makes you stand out even more than the hair did."

"You're a weird guy… so, why are you here?"

Naruto clamped his mouth shut for a moment and just looked at her. He looked around for a minute and then turned back to look at her. "You are Tayuya of Sound, you said… one of the Sound Four?"

"Yeah… five, actually, but the fifth is a secret."

Narrowing his eyes, Naruto wondered why she felt the need to divulge such information without prompting. "I see… I have a few questions for you."

Tayuya sized him up for a bit and then nodded, "Ok. Go on."

"I know that most of the members of the Sound village are taught techniques that revolve around sound; what skills do you possess?"

"I use sound to call apparitions to fight for me."

Naruto nodded. "Why didn't you use that when we were in Nonoko, or in the hall of the swordsmen?"

Tayuya smirked, "I have a chakra conducting flute that allows me to do this… not that I'm not skilled with my lips," her smirk grew into a knowing smile as she licked them slowly, "but I need my hands freed to mold the chakra necessary for the jutsu."

Naruto took a few seconds to stop gawking to ask the next question, "Where do your loyalties lie?"

Tayuya looked at him. "I can't answer that right now… honestly, it doesn't really matter and I really don't care to try and figure that one out."

"So you're unsure…"

"Yeah, I guess."

Naruto stared at her, quietly, and noticed that she was starting to flush at the face. She finished the plate and set it aside, then sat down and stared up at him. He sat in front of her, his hands on his knees as he looked through the cage at her. "Is something wrong?" He asked, noticing her blushing face. "Are you feeling sick?"

"No, but you walked in right after I was rubbing one out."

Naruto had to keep himself from rolling his eyes. She was _aggressive_. He didn't know if that would be a good thing or a bad thing, but he knew that she would be helpful to him if he played this out right.

"Too bad." He said, smirking at her.

"It's not too late, you know…" She smiled, pressing up against the cage suddenly with her fingers slowly slipping around the bars as she stared into his eyes in a very eager manner. "I never did finish."

Naruto sat back and said, "I never did tell you how I met Orochimaru." And just like that, Tayuya growled and turned away. He just had to bring up _that_ asshole again.

"Fine, tell me," she said, looking the other way still.

"I met him a few years ago… he abducted me from Konoha."

"That's right, you're _Uzumaki_ Naruto, aren't you? I heard he had picked up Namikaze Naruto from somewhere a little while after he took you to Mist."

"Yeah? I figured you might've known about that. You're one of his underlings, right?"

Tayuya turned her head back to face him and rolled her eyes, "He _is _the Otokage, isn't he?"

Naruto nodded. "He abducted me and a girl. I bargained with him using a forbidden scroll from the village and offered my life and it as collateral in exchange for her… she uses a technique that allows her to jump from body to body and she took control of me and went back out there to meet him. We both knew that we could not run away, she was the only one with any brains back then. He would've gotten away without a hitch if it wasn't for her… a friend of mine lost his legs, but he might've died that day if she hadn't cut the directions to our location on my arm."

Tayuya arched a brow, "How did that do anything for you?"

Naruto smiled, "When she possesses a body, any damage that is done to that body is also carried over to hers. She sliced up my arm real good, but I heal quickly; I always have. And thanks to her quick thinking, the Hokage got there in time… well, so we thought."

"Orochimaru must've been happy; he is always planning something new to make Konoha suffer for some reason or another. Killing their Kage must've been on his agenda then."

Naruto shook his head. "It's not that easy… Orochimaru may be strong, but old man Sarutobi is on a whole 'nother level. If he were in his prime, I'm sure he would've squashed Orochimaru; like a bug."

"Or like a tiny garden snake…"

They chuckled together. "Anyways, a friend showed up and toasted him with a powerful fire jutsu but he just kept coming after us. The Hokage arrived with my sensei and they attacked, but he didn't try to fight them head on. Instead, he captured me and next thing I know my sensei is fighting against him by himself; my friend suffers a near-fatal accident and I'm stolen away and brought here to Mizu…"

Tayuya smirked, "Rushing with the story, are we?"

"Hah, as if. There's plenty more I can tell you, like how the asshole made me water walk all of the way from the Land of Fire to here," he saw the face of disbelief and shook his head, "You have no idea. Anyways, that's not important. I need to know, do you know if you still know your way to Sound."

Tayuya noticed the way he used his words and nodded slowly. He smiled and stood up, then waved goodbye and walked out.

"What am I doing…?" She asked to herself, lying down on the bed in silence as she tried to get some sleep.

* * *

><p>Tayuya's breath was quickening and her heart was beating rapidly as she felt her chakra suppressing cage suddenly fall down into the pit of ice cold water. As the water rose, she took one last gasp of air and screwed her eyes shut as she fell slowly to her doom in silence.<p>

She opened her eyes when she felt her cage rattle just the slightest. The slack at the end of the rope above didn't even move one bit as her cage was turned in the water. A pair of slender arms reached out and took hold of the bars and used a key to open the cage. She noticed there was a large opening deep in the side of the pit and she leapt into it, following the woman, Ai, with the fishnet body wrap as they swam down the long tunnel that was dug into the ground. When they met a wall, Tayuya was surprised, but Ai reached out and the wall suddenly pressed up against her and swallowed her up, and Tayuya tried to swim away only for a hand to reach out and grab her, dragging her through the muddy wall as it proceeded to move down the tunnel to cover up their escape.

When Ai swam up to the ceiling of the small tunnel, Tayuya noticed that she was able to breathe if she pressed her face up past the surface of the water. She followed suit and took a long, desperate gasp of air as her chest shuddered. She took one more deep breath and followed Ai out the exit to another opening that went straight up.

A rope came rolling in from the top and the slack barely reached the surface of the water. Ai reached out for the rope and pulled Tayuya up to grasp it. She blushed when the girl reached down and lifted her from her butt and pushed up on her to get her to grip on tight. She began to climb, but suddenly the rope began to move as she was being pulled up.

When she finally reached the surface, she looked up and saw a hand in front of her. Her eyes met his with a smile adorned on her face as she took his hand.

"Naruto!"

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><p>:)<p>

P.S.: I really liked the reviews, thanks guys!


	18. Chapter 18

His blue eyes seemed so dull and grey compared to the sight before him; the light of the sun shone brighter from the ground where built up rain water became glass that reflected the light for him to see. The Valley of Light, named for the magnificent view due to the mountainous region during the rainy season, was covered in green moss and other plant life that thrived in the area. Naruto was left breathless as he watched the reflection of the mountains and the sky in the many mirrors that were created due to the many natural basins that populated the area. One of the largest mountains in the distance was so massive that its cap was covered in snow even now when there was not another snowflake in sight.

There was a wind rolling through and he could feel its caress along his shoulders and the back of his neck as it swept through his clothing and refreshed him, causing him to shudder at the cool lick of its breath as it passed on like a lover's roaming kiss.

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><p>Chapter 18<p>

* * *

><p>Naruto looked up from the valley of mirrors, the aptly named Valley of Light, and turned to look back at Anko, while Tayuya was up ahead. The older woman's face was covered by tilting forward a wide brimmed monk's hat tied underneath her chin and her temptingly touchable body barely hidden by a short, blue and white yukata that had beautiful designs of blue bonnets stitched into the fabric. Being herself, Anko opened the front of her Yukata enough so that Tayuya had a hard time trying to figure out how her goods hadn't spilled out of them ever since purchasing it on their journey to the capitol of Hi no Kuni, the Land of Fire.<p>

Tayuya was hardly at a loss for words, even with the miraculous sight before her: "What the hell are you two standing there for? It's just a bunch of puddles of water, let's go!"

Naruto smirked, took a deep breath of the fresh air that inhabited that place and he walked along. Anko shook her head, smiling under her hat and shrugging. "Ah, you've ruined it for me. Now it all seems so mundane!"

Tayuya smirked. "Illusions; silly, aren't they?"

They shared a smile as they made eye contact.

Naruto stepped into the water after kicking off his sandals and closed his eyes. He wasn't sure what it was about the area, but he felt that maybe one day he'd like to come back and visit it after the things that needed to be done were done. Finality. Naruto searched for it by searching for signs of the Sannin, Orochimaru, whose reach seemed to be unending. Their travels brought them to two cities and four towns, each which was being wrapped up within the snake's coils some way or another.

Mitarashi Anko, who was traveling with them under the name of Mizuri Ai, had revealed herself to be a missing-nin from Konoha who came to Mizu in an effort to unravel Orochimaru's current plot.

Tayuya vaguely remembered Anko due to a brief meeting with her as a young child when she was first brought into the Sannin's venomous care; but for Tayuya to see Anko as she was then and as she is now, she was shocked at the wild change in demeanor that a person could undertake within the span of ten and some years. Seeing the way Anko was now, with the fact that she had abandoned her village in essence to protect her village, all of the while facing her mentor of ancient history… Tayuya had to admit that she feared what would happen in her own life within a few years, and wondered if such a drastic change was avoidable. Although, admittedly Tayuya had no idea what Anko thought and the woman seemed to be less than forthcoming with her feelings about herself. She was starting to realize that though time had its grasp upon her and she could not keep it from changing her, time's fierce grasp was more like a gentle tug to those who embraced it.

She looked at Naruto. His mind was occupied solely on finding his abductor. Anko suggested at first that they head back to Konoha to head off any kind of desperation that the village and its leader may have toward his abduction.

Instead, he said he intended to visit the capitol and see if there wasn't something that he could do there to lure in the Sannin. Often times, to find the snake, it's best to find the tree in which its prey lays its eggs. The high population almost guaranteed that there would be a surplus of stupid, alone, and different people for the Sannin to choose from.

Naruto stepped out of the water and shook each leg before stepping back into his sandals and walking towards a small pass within the valley that snaked around mountain triplets. The winding valley between the mountains was steep and long, giant rocks littered the tops of the mountains on small plateaus where ancient landslides left footholds and notches in various locations around the mountainside.

A heavy hand gripped the top of a boulder sitting on a lip high above on the mountain side and there were movements in the mountains all around them that were very high up and difficult to discern from the wind blowing through the valley.

"It's kind of eerie in this little area here… real dark because of the tall cliffs up there." Tayuya muttered, annoyed as she looked around and didn't like that they only had two real exits. The plentiful rainfall made it nearly impossible to grip on to the cliff sides long enough to climb up, even with chakra.

"Naruto…"

"Yeah, I know." He turned his head and looked up over his left shoulder and caught a glimpse of red that meshed well with the clay of the cliff side.

"We're in a bad spot," Anko started, aware of the dangers of all of those heavy rocks hanging high above their heads, "Tayuya, watch our six. We don't need any surprises."

"Namikaze Naruto!" came a coarse yell, anger laced in its tone. "How perfect is it that you should meet the final darkness within the Valley of Light! The Shinigami will gnaw on your weak little soul tonight!"

The three travelers looked up and saw a series of red faces glaring down at them and a few men dressed in samurai armor leaned over the edge with arrows cocked back within the draw of their bows and pointed straight down at them. Naruto searched through the faces and found the speaker up ahead a few meters, smirking with pride in his eyes.

"Nonoko Bankei. You survived; you are lucky." Naruto said curtly.

"Not as lucky as you are, surviving the infiltration of the Nonoko clan as you did; they say fate and luck are intertwined and that when you're luck runs out you are fated to die. Well, that luck has run out my friend; you will die here, Namikaze. I think we'll only kill you and keep your two women alive for our celebration afterwards, what do you think?" Without warning, Bankei called out to his guards, "Take out his legs!"

Naruto moved to dodge the arrows but they were too fast and the samurai far too accurate. They compensated for the movement he made by watching his hips to see which way he would dodge instead of his feet, and nailed both of his knees with ease, dropping him down onto his side as two feathered shafts stuck out of the top of his thighs just past his knee caps.

Bankei smirked, shaking his head at what he saw as a sorry display of a ninja's abilities. "To think that I couldn't even show you the effects of my kekkai genkai; how disappointing that I will have to embellish the story of your defeat a bit when I tell it to my clansmen."

Naruto laughed, shaking his head as he hunched over on the floor with his face nearly into the ground. Tayuya had rushed over to him and drew out her flute to begin playing a genjutsu, but Anko quickly stopped her by placing a hand on her elbow. "Don't. Not yet." Anko reached into her kunai pouch but did not pull anything out of it. Instead, she simply clenched her hand tight.

They shared a look and the two young women looked down at the blond who was currently gripping the wooden shafts of the arrows that were embedded in his knees. His arms were shaking, but he managed to tear each of them out without snapping them.

"You fool! You can't simply yank those out like that, you'll tear up your tendons and then what will you do!" Bankei began to shake his head, but then he saw Naruto stand up and he froze.

Surprised, he looked at some of the samurai that were shooting the arrows and saw they seemed confused as well. Their accuracy was top-notch. There was simply no way they had missed vital muscles and tendons… he shouldn't be able to stand. When Naruto hopped up and landed uneasily on his toes, testing out his legs, they were all left dumbfounded, even Tayuya and Anko.

"That hurt… how many arrows do you have?" Without turning to her, he said simply, "Go ahead Anko."

She nodded, smirking and pressed her thumb against one of the walls of the narrow valley. Tayuya noticed a smearing of blood on the wall and then suddenly a giant yellow snake broke out of the clay and shot straight up to block their path as they went through the tunnel that was dug into the cliff side. When Anko looked in, she saw that her second snake summon was busy making its way through to give them a path, so she quickly followed suit. Tayuya was second to enter, but she quickly turned around and called out to Naruto.

As the smoke cleared, Naruto looked up to see a swarm of boulders and arrows as they fell into the valley, but when his eyes locked with Bankei's and saw the smirk on his face, he only scowled as several arrows pierced him before a boulder fell down and crushed his body.

Tayuya, stunned, fell to her knees for a moment. When she saw the giant rock land on him, she knew she had to get out of there. Quickly, she stood back up and turned back around to run down the tunnel made by the snake.

As he lay under the boulder, Naruto's back arched as his lower body was crushed underneath, and suddenly he disappeared into a small cloud of smoke.

When the snake finished digging its tunnel through the valley's mountains, Anko watched as it slithered out of the hole at the end and a bright flash of light appeared as the sun above shined its rays upon their exit. When she finally reached the end she saw that the snake had regurgitated the young man on the floor, where he was still nursing the wounds to his knees and the arrows had yet to be removed.

Tayuya, who was slowly gaining on Anko, was crying the entire way. She couldn't believe how easily he had been killed; her heart ached at the loss and she couldn't compose herself. She couldn't believe that the person who saved her from her inescapable end in Mizu had been killed so ruthlessly. He seemed to be such a good person, even if he was a little headstrong and focused on Orochimaru. It wasn't until she reached the light at the end that she saw Naruto sitting on the snake's belly as Anko used medical jutsu to cleanly remove the arrows.

"I didn't know you knew medical jutsu." He said, looking up at Anko while she worked.

"I learned it a long time ago because I wanted to be like lady Tsunade when I first became a kunoichi." Anko shrugged. "You don't forget because of the intense training…"

Naruto nodded.

Tayuya's heart was racing and she felt the urge to act on impulse; the way he was on the floor, bleeding profusely from his legs while he tentatively messed with the arrows to try and see if they would slide out, didn't help. When she knelt down beside him she hugged him as tightly as she could. She felt uneasy when he didn't bring his arms back around her to return the hug.

"What was that for?" Naruto asked, confused. His legs still in pain, he didn't think to try and comfort the girl who probably thought he had died.

Tayuya shook her head, blushing brightly, "Nothing, you asshole, I'm just happy to be alive…" She wiped away a tear after she turned her back to him and looked toward Anko with a forced smile on her face, "You are the craftiest woman I've ever met!"

Anko's smirk was lighthearted. When she turned to Naruto she tried to hide the distaste from her face as she looked at him and tiled her head toward the snake. "He's staying because he's offering us a ride to the capitol, if you want to take it."

"We can't just leave them. We should deal with them now. I don't like leaving them to their devices while we're trying to find traces of the snake."

"We can't face all of those warriors on our own. Your legs are messed up; we shouldn't do anything reckless, Naruto."

Naruto stood up. Now that the arrows were out of his flesh it healed rather quickly. He could walk pretty well, but he knew any high intensity movement would be impossible for a few hours. "I'm fine." He lied.

Tayuya looked at him, wide-eyed. _What in Kami-sama's name is he?_

"Walking or not, we cannot face them. You may have survived infiltrating their base by surprise," Anko said, glaring now, "but fighting them in close quarters combat is almost as bad as fighting a Hyuga. Their touch zaps you and dehydrates you in a very bad way. One touch to the head or heart and we're dead. Not to mention we're at a disadvantage in long-range fighting due to those samurai."

Naruto conceded. "I guess we could use an ally." He tested his legs patiently, leaning from one side to another before lifting his leg up one at a time to wait for them to heal. "Do you know anyone who is working in the capitol that might be able to help us?"

Anko frowned. She turned to look at Tayuya for a second who was busy touching her lips with her finger tips. "No, no one. I cut ties with all of my contacts in Konoha, the few that I had."

The look on Naruto's face soured and he eyed Tayuya for a bit before looking back up towards the mountain, "Then we are running out of options… going on only increases the chance of another ambush. We were lucky you were so quick and that you didn't need any seals to summon those snakes. He's right though, our luck might run out."

Anko groaned, "Just… let's just hope that it holds out a little bit longer. Once we get to the capitol, we might be able to do something more. And if we have to face them head on, I'd rather do it in a busy street where we can hide away instead of out here on the plains where we have no cover."

Tayuya placed her hand on Naruto's shoulder, "Listen to her. They are too strong for us to fight on our own in this place."

He sighed and looked back up towards the mountains and set an explosive seal on the wall of the tunnel that was dug out by the snake. While he was activating the seal, he called to Anko with his back still turned as he peered down the long tunnel. "Hey Anko, have you ever seen the Scroll of Sealing?"

She shook her head and shrugged, "Orochimaru taught me a technique from it second hand. I have never looked inside of it, though."

"Which technique did he teach you?" Naruto asked, surprised.

"I don't want to talk about that," she said, standoffishly.

He frowned, but continued anyways, "I learned Kage Bunshin, but I can't perform Tajuu Kage Bunshin because it requires too much chakra… I was able to see Bankei even as the boulder crushed my clone earlier… even though I was hiding in the snake's mouth. It came like an afterthought in a memory once the clone was dispelled. That was the first time I noticed that about the shadow clone technique."

Anko nodded. "It's an interesting venue, I suppose, to use as a method. It wastes so much chakra though."

Tayuya piped up, confused, "Why didn't you just use a kage bunshin when he was shooting the arrows? Then you wouldn't have this injury."

Naruto nodded, "Precisely because it uses far too much chakra. Plus, I had to be convincing to give Anko time to get the snake to block the first few attacks with his body. If I just let him find out that it was a kage bunshi, all of us would have been in trouble because I can't make more than a few of them without passing out. I didn't want to be low and chakra in case we needed to fight back."

"They'll be coming soon, we should leave." Anko said, placing her hand gently on the belly of the snake while it looked down at her inquisitively.

Naruto nodded and straddled the back of the snake as it began to slither about. "I hope he doesn't mind that I will be hitching a ride…"

The snake didn't seem to understand what he was saying, oddly enough, but Anko's calm brown eyes placated the serpent before it tried to wriggle about to get the young blond off. Anko herself threw her leg over the side of the snake and sat directly behind Naruto, grabbing him by his waist while Tayuya decided to run alongside them; just because it was friendly, didn't mean it wasn't still a snake. Snakes reminded her too much of Orochimaru for her to feel comfortable, and she didn't try to pretend otherwise.

They rode the back of the snake for another hour before arriving at the bridge to Hi no Kuni's capitol, the famous Kumamoto City.

* * *

><p>Chojuro shook his head as he, Ao and the Mizukage sat alone in confusion when they found out that Naruto paid off the rest of his lease and packed up a few meager things while leaving everything else behind that he had used to furnish the apartment. There was a note for Chojuro that simply said, 'If you're ever in a rough spot, send a messenger bird to Konoha. They'll know how to contact me.'<p>

Terumi Mei frowned as she sat on the empty bed in the boy's room while Ao went through the apartment, trying to look for clues that would lead them to him; they hoped that he was careless enough to leave them a trail to follow, but apparently he had learned quite a bit while running missions for Mizu.

"We taught him too well." He said, finally ceasing his search in the boy's apartment. "Perhaps if we would have imprisoned him from the start…"

Mei looked at him in disgust, "What he has done for the village more than makes up for this … I couldn't even call this a betrayal… I have a feeling I know why he's left. It was too great of an opportunity to get one step ahead of Orochimaru. He aims to face the Sannin directly… perhaps before he comes back to claim him."

"The fool." Ao sighed, shaking his head.

"Mizukage-sama." Chojuro said, standing up from his seat on the living room couch. "Send me after him, on an official mission."

Mei swallowed uncomfortably as she saw the young man step up to her. He had a look in his eyes much like Naruto always carried; it told her and anyone else that, one way or another, he would find a way to reach his aspirations. "Cho-kun… I can't just… how do you intend to find him? Just walk in a random direction?"

"No. We know that he has to make contact with Konoha to get this messenger system set up. It's not something that he has already set up; it would've been too risky while living here! Also, he didn't have the network available to help him establish it."

Ao smirked, "Interesting idea. So you think that he just recently gained an ally besides Tayuya of Sound?"

Chojuro nodded, "It's Ai. I'm sure of it."

Mei shook her head, "I'll admit: she has been missing for a little while now… She just got promoted; she wouldn't leave after such a raise in pay and… Ao, was she given access to our libraries?"

He looked at her cautiously and nodded. His jaw was clenching. "She actually… had it a little earlier than intended."

Mei's eyebrow twitched.

"What?"

"I… well, she was given access before her promotion because it was such a sure thing…"

"… by whom?"

Chojuro rolled his eyes while Ao stuttered. "I… I was the one who let her in early."

"She got into his pants, probably." Chojuro said, smirking while Ao's one visible eye widened and he looked like he was ready to strangle the boy to keep him quiet.

Terumi Mei rubbed her temples and muttered out, "Men…" shaking her head at the fact that one of her top body guards allowed a **known **seductress to get him to break the rules, even if she was going to be granted access into the private library of the swordsmen anyways due to her recent promotion to jonin status. "It can't be helped, I suppose. Ao, you are on leave starting the end of the week until further notice. I will have to pursue an investigation to see just what she read in the library that set Naruto on his path so quickly."

"How could you be so sure that it was Ai who did the research for him, and what in our libraries would have anything to do with Orochimaru?" Ao asked, furrowing his brows.

"You have fought him before, haven't you?" Mei asked, crossing her arms.

Ao nodded, "Well, yes, once, but I was fighting together with my master against him. I hardly learned anything about his goals or that he even was the Kage of Sound until recently."

Mei nodded as well and then turned to look at Chojuro. "The seven swordsmen of the mist and the previous Mizukage have records of bouts for control with Orochimaru. He joined a group of elite shinobi right after the fights, but there were several of them and there was even a time when Orochimaru was close enough to assassinate the Mizukage and just let him go. It isn't explained as to why, but I know the reason. Our Yondaime Mizukage, Yagura, was the holder of the three-tailed monster turtle."

"But what does that have to do with Naruto?"

"That, I don't know." She bit her lip and turned to look at Chojuro, who kept the same look in his eyes. "Ok, Chojuro. You may leave to try and intercept them. I will send a team to Konoha so that you can work your way along the route you suspect them to be on. You will have a month to find him. If you cannot, you are to return to Mizu or else be declared a missing-nin and we will have to dispatch our ANBU to kill and retrieve you. Do you understand?"

Chojuro, used to the harsh ways of the Mist, nodded once and stepped forward. "Please, allow me to take the sword with me."

The Mizukage was silent for several seconds before she nodded. "Fine. You may take the sword. I now give you the honor as the one and only seven swordsman of the mist…"

Ao was about to speak up when Mei turned and glared at him, "As for you, I suggest you shut your trap now unless you want me to shove my fist down your throat! We are going to have a talk about letting your other head control your actions."

Ao shut his mouth, feeling that it had become dry all of a sudden.

Mei smiled at Chojuro after her glare at Ao disappeared and leaned in to give him a kiss on the lips. He blushed a healthy red and touched his lips, whispering how he knew her lips were as soft as flower petals. "You come back to me in one piece, Cho-kun. I will miss you very much."

Chojuro smiled and turned away to retrieve the sword.

When he was ready to leave, the Mizukage called him and smiled when he turned around one last time. "I have a boat waiting for you. It's a fisherman's boat and it's heading to trade with a merchant in Hi anyways. You can hitch a ride to get to shore."

Chojuro only shook his head, surprising Ao and the Mizukage. "I can't do that."

"How will you leave the island?" Ao asked, dumbfounded.

He turned and looked towards the water and the beach just outside of Naruto's apartment. With a nod, he left the apartment and his two surprised elders as he walked alone down to the shore; he took his first step on the water and smiled one last time at the amber haired kage and her bodyguard and his friend. "See you in one month!"

"Cho-kun, you won't make it walking all of the way across! The whirlpool might return, it claimed the lives of fire nobles and even the Daiymo's sister… there's this whole political boil-over because of it and our trade routes are being affected by it… don't risk your life needlessly like that!" She ran up to the shore and called out to him even louder as he continued to walk. "No one has ever done it before!"

He grinned and shook his head, waiving back without turning to look at them. "Naruto did."

And with that, Chojuro continued to walk and used the least amount of chakra with each step to conserve his energy.

The Mizukage and Ao watched in silence as waves of water roared as they crashed onto the shore, forcing the two of them back.

* * *

><p>"I'll take one of these."<p>

"Why sure, young lady! But are you sure you can stomach that? Very few pretty girls like you come asking for skewered scorpion!"

Her soft, full lips spread out slightly as she gave a knowing smirk. "I guess I'm one in a thousand."

"Hah! More like one in a million! Don't downplay yourself, young lady!"

She blushed at his kind words, "Thank you, sir."

"Ok! Buy two and I will give you a third free, deal?"

She smiled.

"That's a deal."

* * *

><p>Shortly after, Yamanaka Ino stood on a small bridge leaning over and chewing down on the nutty tasting scorpion as she waited patiently for her father to return from his meeting in the heart of Kumamoto. He was currently interpreting the dreams of the daimyo's youngest nephews whose been experiencing terrible, prophetic nightmares. The one that triggered the series of nightmares was that of the death of the Daimyo's sister, his mother. She died a grueling death when a giant whirlpool appeared suddenly in the waters between the fire and water countries. They found her body and those of her servants and several other passengers when on a luxury ship created for nobles and ambassadors to other countries.<p>

Ino sighed and closed her eyes, sucking down the crunchy treat and wondering why her father had not let her join him in his diagnosis of the young boy whose fatal dreams have been coming true of the people living in the city.

Naruto and his company made their way up a small bridge over a ravine and saw a young blonde woman leaning up against the railing. He could only see her from the back, and she had quite the figure. Naruto looked surprised and for a few seconds his heart began to pound in his chest. He remembered the girl from Konoha that tried so hard to save him. He remembered that feeling of strength entering his bones like it had when he was under the scrutinous lights of the hidden passageways in Konoha's walls.

He smiled, and then kept walking. Anko and Tayuya followed by calmly, barely giving the young woman a glance even as she turned to look at them as they had fallen behind; even with his legs shot, Naruto forced himself to keep up his pace, not wanting to appear weak or hurt.

Ino saw her reflection in the water over the rail; she's changed, and the young girl that she used to be was no more. Ino looked up and bit down on another scorpion, looking around when she finally noticed the man walking up front with his stick, barely catching the glimpse of one blue eye and the two women behind him after they had already passed him.

Several moments later, her heart wrenched tightly and she squashed it.

I hope you've enjoyed the chapter and that I've successfully set up the next chapter for their reunion.

:) Review if you like.


	19. Chapter 19

"Don't stay out too late. We will be heading back to Mizu by morning."

A beautiful young man with long hair, black shinobi leggings, a gray turtle-neck and two frigid blue leg warmers turned around when he heard the voice of his master. He smiled softly and nodded once before responding.

"I will not stray long, Zabusa-san."

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 19<span>

* * *

><p>Momichi Zabusa wasn't sure what to make of the young man who he procured before his attempted assassination on the previous Mizukage. Haku was a boy with striking beauty, so much so that he was easily mistaken for a pretty girl. Even as he grew older, the young man's cheek bones only seemed to soften as his face kept its round, oval shape and his eyelashes grew longer and fuller.<p>

Haku was also the perfect tool; he deceived many people, but only for his master. If Zabusa told him to do something, he would not only do it but also make sure that he did it swiftly and cleanly. Haku's skill with throwing kunai was on par with Zabusa's; although, to be fair, Zabusa wasn't much use with throwing weapons; Haku's ability with senbon needles was deadly accurate, but the boy often only used the needles to disarm his opponent, rather than outright kill him. Yet, Haku never hesitated to kill if Zabusa willed it.

Haku was Zabusa's left arm, his strongest arm, and yet also his heart; the boy's compassion for life and the well-being of even his enemies at times Zabusa used to think was weak… yet as time passed, he quickly realized how powerful that compassion could be. In some cases, Haku's begging to spare lives of their enemies and his alluring and friendly personality nabbed them several contacts around the fire country and wave country. During a mission in wave where they were to kill a bridge builder for a shady character named Gatou, Haku begged off the man's life due to a young boy in the village, the builder's grandson, who stood up to Haku during his first assassination attempt on the bridge builder. In the end, Gatou tried to turn on Zabusa, but the two of them annihilated Gatou and his cronies, took their pay and then some from the wallet on his corpse, and waited quietly while the bridge was being built before moving on.

Still, Zabusa was the demon of the bloody mist. One did not simply stop killing if sympathy was costing money; and Haku, who was a compassionate young man with a heart like no other, was also a soulless tool when he needed to be. As he aged, he only grew better, and more in Zabusa's favor.

Now that the boy was older, Haku was even more of an asset and Zabusa knew he could never let him go at this point. Most of their successful missions were due to the young man's skill in every facet of the shinobi life; from ninjutsu to genjutsu, taijutsu and most recently medic jutsu, Haku was a shinobi worth his weight in gold.

To top it all off, Haku had a kekkai genkai, or bloodline limit, allowing him to create a dastardly jutsu, one that hardly reflected his personality, called the Demon Ice Mirrors. He used it rarely, but rarer did the time come when it was needed.

To let Haku go now would mean Zabusa would have to fight tooth and claw yet again for scraps, and the luxury that they could afford now, if they so pleased, was far too convenient for the ex-Mist nin to give up.

No, Zabusa had no intention of giving up the lavish life of having Haku around.

* * *

><p>When Chojuro reached the beach, his legs gave out. His face planted itself onto the shore as the waves receded and then washed over him, over and over again. He felt no pain after the long walk, oddly enough, but he knew that he could not get up. The eerie feeling of needles poking their way out of his body made him shiver, but he still felt no pain. He turned his eyes to look to his side and saw the sunset down a ways, setting into the sea.<p>

As he started to black out, he heard a light gasp just as the waves stopped moving back to burst back forwards. When two hands set on his shoulders and he saw the pretty eyes of what looked like a young woman staring back at him, Chojuro's senses went out like an ember smashed out by a heavy boot.

* * *

><p>"I'll be back in a bit, girls. Don't play so rough with her, Anko." Naruto smiled at the two women in his company as he stopped by their hotel room door.<p>

Anko smirked, though her eyes did not relent on eyeing the redhead like a piece of meat. "But Naruto, I don't know how to play any other way." She smiled when Tayuya flinched; the young girl was growing pale at the look the older woman was giving her.

"Don't you fucking leave me in here with _her_! What the hell, Naruto?"

Naruto shook his head. "Listen, just behave. Both of you. Why don't you go out and have dinner together? I won't sit here while Orochimaru's out there wrapping this country around his little finger. There's got to be some way I can hit him. Maybe financially… I don't know. Politically…" He sighed, looked at the two girls as if their eyes would give him the answer, but then left in a frustrated huff, shutting the door and walking away with a precarious, nervous gait.

Tayuya sighed. She turned to look at Anko, who quietly shook her head.

"We need allies… there's no way we can hit him here in the capitol… I know a few of his contacts here, but they're too high up; we might as well try and well… you know."

Anko nodded. "I'm surprised you managed to keep from saying 'assassinate the Daimyo'." At that, Tayuya paled and tried to cover Anko's mouth with her hands, to no avail. "Even if someone were listening, that is foolishly vague and we obviously do not have the manpower for it. He's the Daimyo of the fire country, one of the strongest countries in the world; he's not paranoid, he's probably underestimating the people that want him dead anyways."

Tayuya frowned. "Whatever… that still is stuff you should not say when there're ninja everywhere."

Anko shrugged. "This is a samurai run city. They are the police force, the guard, the military power, the enforcers… there are only visitors and spies in this area… maybe a few local resident shinobi, but that's it."

Tayuya shook her head, "I just feel uneasy about this place… like someone's been watching us since we arrived."

The dark haired vixen sighed and began to unbutton her top, "It may be Bankei and his group; I wouldn't be surprised… keep up your guard..."

Tayuya narrowed her eyes. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, just trying to get you to drop your guard." She once again unclasped another button and leaned back on her bed as she pushed her chest out slightly, leaving her top with the nearly impossible task of containing her generous bosom.

Tayuya promptly stood up and left the room, leaving a half-naked Anko to her own devices in the room until Tayuya was absolutely sure that Naruto was back to protect her from the sultry woman.

Anko stepped out shortly after Tayuya and followed her, her top back on somewhat and her hat on the top of her head as she walked a short distance behind her to the elevator. Tayuya ran in and pressed the button to go down to the first floor and the door began to close.

"You're so mean, Tayuya." Anko called out, playfully.

As the doors were closing however, Anko saw something move behind the girl and immediately she began to run up to the elevator.

* * *

><p>Yamanaka Ino looked up in surprise when she saw the same blond from earlier leave the same hotel she and her father were staying at just as she was entering. He was young, about her age or a little bit older probably, but his face had strange whisker marks on it. She sat there confused, eyeing the young man as he walked past, oblivious of her as his thoughts were elsewhere.<p>

Ino bit her lip, ready to turn around and follow him, but then she noticed someone else doing it for her already. A man wearing red war paint on his face was standing on top of a two story building, looking down on the blond. His outfit completely clashed with his surroundings, making Ino almost gag at how obvious it was. With a few hand seals to mold chakra, Ino held out her hands and…

* * *

><p>Tayuya furrowed her brows, asking "What?" while her eyes focused on the dark haired girl even as a figure came down from the maintenance hatch above her and landed with an arm wrapped around her, his fingertips catching her by the throat. "Mean, backstabbing little girls should be punished."<p>

Tayuya had trouble gasping as she felt her throat constrict and her tongue dry out as Bankei's hand began drawing water from her mouth and vocal chords to keep from making any sounds.

The elevator door opened and Bankei stepped forward, still grasping Tayuya by the throat while his other hand removed her kunai pouch and began to snake his palm up the front of her shirt as he stood behind her.

Anko, deliberating on whether to strike at the man and risk Tayuya being killed or, worse, getting in the way, was not able to act quickly enough to react to an ambush as doors all around them in the hallway began to open up as samurai without their protective armor came out and brandished their swords against her.

"It looks like you little fools simply can't keep your guard up. Strike after strike, I land it."

"You have a very competent network here, don't you?"

Bankei smirked, raising his eyebrows suggestively. "If you're interested, there's always room for expansion. Of course, you'll have to complete a few favors for me and a dozen or so of my friends before you can get in."

"Fuck you." Tayuya finally spat out, wheezing part of the way through it.

Anko frowned, but Bankei just laughed. "Oh, that's part of the plan. Believe me." He sneered at the young redhead in his grasp before taking hold of one of her breasts and squeezing tightly. "But before that…" he turned his gaze to stare into Anko's chocolate brown eyes, "You are Hidden Mist's Mizuri Ai, aren't you? I want you to tell Namikaze that I have his little companion. If he wants to save her, he'll have to give himself up. I doubt he will, but it's worth the try." He grinned as Tayuya's face revealed the loathing for him that he instilled within her.

"He is out right now; I can't get him right this second." Anko said, trying to buy time to figure out what to do.

"I don't care. Get him, and tell him that if he wants her to stay untouched then I want him to meet me just outside of the city limits on the east side. You have until tomorrow afternoon. Tell him I'll kill her if he doesn't show up."

Anko saw the look that was in Tayuya's eyes and was surprised by it; the gaze that peered back at her was one of resolve. She had no intention of letting Naruto sacrifice himself for her.

Anko said, as a last-ditch effort, "You should take me instead. She's inexperienced, and probably a prude. Just look at those tacky clothes and that hat she's wearing. It makes me sick just looking at it."

Bankei arched a brow and smirked, leaning on Tayuya's shoulders as he wrapped his arms around her. He constantly drained and replenished the girl, making Tayuya aware of an ability that she didn't know the Nonoko people had having never been on the receiving end of one of their attacks before: the ability to not only drain water and dehydrate someone, but also the ability to share water and hydrate that same person and possibly someone else.

Seeing that she had his attention, Anko took a step closer, smiling as she slowly jutted out her curvaceous hips, raising her arms slightly show off her chest as she brought her hands behind her head in a slow and controlled, serpentine manner. "You should go with the one who's more experienced… more capable of suiting yours… and your friends' needs."

Tayuya felt something stiff press against her from behind, but he had successfully ruined her speaking until she parched her dry throat.

"Mm. Tempting. I have to admit, though, breaking a virgin like this girl has its ups too… what are you willing to do to trade places with her?" He asked, now playing with the girl.

"Boss, the elevator's going. Shouldn't we…"

"Shut up! Just two of you get on either side of it and kill whoever walks in. A couple of those sharp sticks you guys are carrying should be enough to poke through a few bellies. So, as you were saying… Mizuri Ai…"

Anko smirked, knowing she had the man right where she wanted him. She was buying time. "_Anything."_

One of the guards sucked in his breath at the way she said it. Bankei whistled. "Well, damn… fine, arms behind your back. And don't try anything stupid. They're going to tie you up."

Anko glared, "You must think I'm stupid. Let her go first. It's not like we can get away from you anyways without you letting one of us go. Not with so many of you." Anko had counted six bodyguard samurai and she was sure that the slightly parted doors housed a few more of the Nonoko tribe. They were known fairly well for their poisonous darts.

"Well, I can't simply let her go… I suppose I'll just have to take both of you then…" Bankei threw Tayuya up against a wall where one of his guards pressed his curved blade up against her throat, pinning her back. Anko glared and formed a few hand seals when suddenly the elevator door opened.

Everyone turned to look in its direction as the first door of the cage parted to the side and then the two metal sliding doors opened up. There was some confusion until a man with a red face stepped out from behind the panel within the elevator and stepped forward to be met by the two samurai guarding the elevator.

"Wait, that's one of ours… Bo Long, what on Earth do you think you're doing? You weren't supposed to walk around in the halls with your face paint on." Bankei pointed at his face, which was missing the war paint that was usually there.

"Let them go. If you hold them any longer, then I will be forced to kill you."

Bankei blinked, "Bo, what's wrong? Why are you saying that?"

Without warning, Bo Long stabbed himself in the eye with a kunai and screamed out in pain for a moment as he fell to his knees. His gasping lasted for a few seconds before it abruptly stopped and he stood up again. He said calmly, as if blood wasn't gushing out of his destroyed eye. "If you do not heed my warning: I-will-kill-each… and every-one-of-you."

The group of samurai began to lower their weapons, scared at his threatening voice and the way it seemed as if his body was being possessed.

He suddenly began pleading, in a totally different voice; one dripping with fear, "Please! Please, listen to it! I don't know why it's controlling me, but it stopped me from tailing Namikaze and-urgk-k!" He cut his own throat… the voice came back, this time saying, "You can still run…" just as his body fell limp to the ground, blood drenching the off-white carpet as the man died; not from the bleeding but from choking on his own blood.

Bankei was still looking in Bo's direction, but by chance he saw the glimmer of a mirror through the hotel's staircase window directly beside the elevator at the end of the hall.

"What on…" He said, but to his surprise all of the samurai that were guarding him suddenly turned their swords and pointed them at his neck. "What the fuck are you doing? Put those down, immediately!"

The guards closest to the elevator were shaking in fear at being manipulated in such a way, and as they saw Bankei look at them as traitors they shook their heads violently and pleaded for the spirit to let them go.

"Kill me then, if you can! Because I shall not run! I am no coward!" He yelled, glaring at his own guards who looked at him in fear.

Suddenly all six of his guards swung at one another, deliberately missing Bankei, and killed each other off at the same time.

He stood quiet, blood from his comrades on his neck as the doors to the hotel rooms began to close and windows were either open or smashed so the other Nonoko tribesmen in hiding could escape.

"My men… all of them…" He furrowed his brow, wondering why he wasn't being controlled. He looked back towards the mirror and saw that it was gone. In its stead, a small hand pushed open the door and a young blonde girl with long hair and beautiful green-blue eyes that locked onto his.

"You… you are blonde? Are you related to the Namikaze?" He asked, his heart pumping blood like a piston in his chest.

"Namikaze… so it is Naruto." She said, looking at the two women who were in daze from all of the senseless killing that happened around them.

"Why did you kill… why are they all dead?" He asked, glaring at her furiously.

Ino smiled softly and began forming seals. "You had your chance to run… I would've let them go if you had." She stepped up to him and pressed her palm up to his forehead. He glared and began using his kekkai genkai to suck away all of the moisture in her body until her flesh began to shrivel up. Ino gasped as her breath left her and Bankei sneered lividly at her. "I will make sure you keep you on the verge of death as I lay you on my bed and fuck you until your heart stops."

Ino smiled. He saw her smile and smirked, amused even as she began resembling a wrinkly old woman. "Stupid bitch. Forget that, I'm going to just turn you into a mound of dust… ugh… wait, what?" His eyes widened, and in her eyes he saw his reflection, clear as day, and her bare hand gently caressed his forehead as wrinkles began appearing on it and his skin began to dry up. His tongue dried until it turned to dust and his eyes began to shrivel up. He felt every part of his body lose its moisture as his own technique was turned on him. Just as his sight disappeared, he saw the vision of beauty standing before him once again just as she took the last drop of moisture from his brain, effectively leaving him brain dead.

"Stupid man. Weak men take advantage of women; it's the strong men who could if they so chose choose instead to protect them…" Ino remembered the look in Naruto's eyes as he put himself in between her and Orochimaru, several years ago. She remembered the strength that radiated from him and the surprise she felt when she literally could feel his resolve; it felt as if she were wearing a warm scarf or a snug sweater, and she knew he would give up his life for hers with absolutely no regret and no doubt.

"… with their lives if necessary."

* * *

><p>Author's note: Thank you for your reviews and your support. I couldn't wait to <em>really<em> introduce Ino. I had a whole 'nother chapter written up and I had to just ignore it for now because I didn't like the way it flowed, plus it had to do with Sasuke and we'll get to that eventually. This chapter basically gives you a clue as to how powerful she has become thanks to her time with Inotsuyoi, her ancestor who made the glass fan, and to resolve the conflict with Bankei and the Nonoko village and clan. Now, her jump in strength isn't to make her unbeatable. I don't want to explain it out of story, but if you can figure out how she was able to defeat them so easily and (especially) reverse his jutsu, then kudos.

And no, the Nonoko don't have an eye jutsu or doujutsu (?) and Ino is reversing his technique a different way than what Inotsuyoi was known for, as she developed an ability that made her Uchiha kryptonite. (lmao) If you have any suggestions or comments, I'd love to hear them.


	20. Chapter 20: I Watched You Die

Anko walked into the room and closed the door behind her, looking at Tayuya as she sat on a chair by the small kitchen inside. Across from Tayuya was Yamanaka Ino, a young woman that Anko's only recollection of was an image of an exuberant, undedicated girl that put her efforts on crushes, clothes and hair before anything else. She knew of Ino because of her father, one of Konoha's authorities on information gathering, torture and interrogation, and also because of a few guest kunoichi classes that she taught during Ino's early academy days.

However, after seeing the obliteration of the Nonoko leader, along with his hired samurai mercenaries, and seeing the young woman as she was now Anko knew that the person who held value in frivolities was no longer standing before her. The woman's very gait was impressive: long strides with legs made for making them, hands steady and a perfectly curved spine, and hips that moved sultrily with no observable effort.

Ino's skin was only slightly tanned; not quite bronzed, not quite fair. Anko had trouble trying to find a spot on the young woman to focus on. Her eyes were perfectly polished malachite circles with the edges being darker than the center of her pupil-less irises. Now, her eyes seemed to be missing pupils, but in reality they were simply not black like everyone else's. Anko wondered to herself if Ino saw things differently than most people because of them.

Anko liked to imagine people in terms of the type of snake they would be if they were born as one. To her, Ino was much like the famous sidewinder of Suna in the Land of Wind; the sidewinder moved in a different way than others, as its name suggests, and though it may seem strange or perhaps exotic in the way it moves, its movements are remarkably efficient.

As Anko was taking in the shapely figure of her hips and her petit breasts, Ino spoke. Her eyes were looking out the window in the hotel room as she scanned the streets below for signs of the young blond shinobi.

"That was fast." Ino remarked, her greenish blue eyes lighting up like a fire from the underworld. She had full pouting lips that looked incredibly soft to the touch.

Tayuya's eyes were on Ino's left arm where she wore a bracer that was hooked to her middle finger by a ring to her wrist using a zipper and a series of hooks to keep it in place no matter what kind of movement she made with that arm. The top part of the bracer was made to look like purple snake scales, over a hundred tiny scales of blackened steel, each piece intricately set into the base on the arm. They were so small that Tayuya could barely tell that they were there. Her shinobi shin-guards she wore were similar in make but with even more pieces of armor woven into the material. Tayuya figured it was some type of leather, though she wasn't sure. The fact that she was missing a guard on her right arm didn't go unnoticed, but Tayuya's eyes quickly roamed over the purple top that she wore that showed her midriff, while her pants were low enough to show her well-toned belly and hips.

Anko nodded in agreement though Ino was still not looking at her. She said, "Yeah," and turned to look at Tayuya who still looked uneasy to have the blonde woman in their hotel room, noticing the way her eyes were hesitantly sizing her up, "I'm pretty good at it… I've been getting rid of bodies for a long time."

"How long will he be out?" she asked.

"He didn't say. He wasn't in his normal state of mind. He probably feels nervous because K-city is one of Orochimaru's cities."

Tayuya looked over at Anko and wondered just what the older woman knew about Orochimaru, and what her relationship with the man was… or is.

"I see… to think that he would have such a grasp on our very own capitol. It's a frightening feeling."

"Wait, couldn't you just make him strangle himself and he'd die?" asked Tayuya. "That way we wouldn't even have to fight him!"

Ino grabbed at her arm over the bracer as she continued to search the streets through the parting between the curtains. "I would gladly destroy him if I could… simply knowing him has left me with many-"

Ino paused for a second, eyeing the blond hair of the man who kissed her several years ago.

"He's back."

Anko stood up and walked to the bathroom, closing the door behind her while Tayuya's eyes followed her movements.

"Anyways, why can't you again? You have to be lying since you dealt with those guys back there so easily."

Ino turned to look at Tayuya and the red head flinched, her eyes dodging the blonde's carefully as she began to look down to the floor.

"You didn't notice? I suppose I should explain it… there was a reason why I took hold of that one man's henchmen first instead of simply going for him and sparing all of their lives. I can tell rather quickly when I can or cannot manipulate someone. I guess it's sort of from experience and a lot of practice… but anyways, the only other way I could've controlled him would've put me in a disadvantageous position. I had to clear out his guard to get in close enough to touch… once I'm that close it's no problem for me to take over someone… but even then there are limits."

Tayuya frowned, "Like?"

Ino shrugged, "Well, so far I've noticed that certain type of people can fight or even blatantly ignore my techniques if their will is strong enough. I have to assume that it has to do something with their chakra networks as well, but generally if a person is too strong to kill with a kunai, they're too strong to take over with my jutsu. Unless they're receptive to me in the first place… like someone that I love, or that loves me…"

Tayuya mauled that statement over in her head for a few minutes before letting it go, unsure of what she meant by saying 'love' instead of some other word. Odd, that she would so easily reveal the secrets to her jutsu.

"Those weren't secrets. My jutsu either work or they don't… no amount of preparation can deflect something you cannot see."

Tayuya shot up from her chair in shock, knocking it back as she looked at Ino and slowly came to realize that she may have mistakenly said her thoughts out loud.

Ino chuckled, turning back to the window to reflect on the life she lead as Naruto made his way up to his room.

The two young women waited patiently for Naruto to enter, but as a few minutes passed and the shower went on in the bathroom, Tayuya slowly made her way over to the remote control for the TV and turned it on just as a commercial for a local martial arts tournament aired on the channel that came on.

"So… Naruto has not once spoken about you. I am going to assume that Anko knows you though. But how can we trust you? What relationship do you have with Naruto?"

Ino nodded, turning around to sit on a chair beside the bed. She crossed her legs as she watched the television set on mute with Tayuya. The news reported about an international sensation; a competition between the strongest fighters, shinobi, samurai and other warriors alike, was taking place in Kumamoto. It would begin in three weeks and important visitors and delegates from around the world were visiting for the tournament. It was called the Kira Tonamento, or Killer Tournament, and prelims would begin two weeks from today.

"I am not sure about my relationship with Naruto… I am still trying to figure that one out, which is why I am here." Ino turned to look at Tayuya for a moment before turning back to the TV, saying "I wonder if this is something that Orochimaru has his hand in?"

"I wouldn't be surprised. It is a tournament that allows killing, something most martial arts tournaments wouldn't dare tread on for fear of diminishing their honor as a practice and an art."

The look on Ino's face soured as she watched a man knee another man in the skull, breaking his nose, before lunging down upon his fallen body and landing a crashing strike to his chest, finishing the fight. "Interesting how this world breeds monsters like him; it exalts violence and attrition of the human spirit by commending and even honoring the victors of these sorts of ruthless freak shows. There is enough killing in the world… and now this?"

"What is taking him so long?" Tayuya asked, exasperated by the Naruto's slow pace up to their room.

The shower turned off then and shortly after Anko stepped out of the bathroom. Ino turned to look at Anko as she walked out with her hair still wet, her body wrapped only in a towel, but she heard the door to the room opening and her eyes turned back to catch the surprise in Naruto's eyes as he stared back at her, mystified by the woman that was sitting only a short distance away.

"Ino."

* * *

><p>Chapter 20: I Watched You Die<p>

* * *

><p>Naruto's heart was racing when he picked up the scent of blood coming from the hallway outside of the elevator on his floor. He wasn't sure how, because he couldn't see a speck of it anywhere, but the smell was so strong in his nose that he felt a little bit light-headed because of it. As he walked down the hall, heading to his room as the foreboding smell tampered with his sense of smell, he barely caught a whiff of a familiar scent that reminded him of flowers hidden within the smell so coppery that he could almost taste the blood.<p>

"That couldn't be… what the hell just happened here?" Naruto broke into a run. When he arrived at his door, he gripped the handle with a shaky hand and opened the door.

"Ino." He muttered, flustered at the mere sight of her. With his tongue and throat so dry from his nerves, it didn't matter that he had no idea what to say other than call out her name. They spent so much time apart that the young woman that he saw before him barely resembled the frightened, but strong hearted girl that he knew; the first thing he noticed was that she had changed her hair somewhat, pulling part of it in front of her face to cover one eye. It was still tied in a pony-tail though, and her eyes were exactly the same. He stood upright as he noticed her eyes roaming over his body, taking in his changes just as he had hers. She still did not stand up. Her hands were resting on her knees and Naruto quickly noticed the bracer that she wore that resembled the scales of a snake and he immediately understood the symbolism.

He took a step forward while she watched him. Her lips parted slightly as she breathed, then closed as if sealing off her lungs. She didn't seem quite capable of breathing correctly. Not until he stood directly in front of her and she finally sighed, releasing the breath that she held as he walked.

"Naruto, what's that on your face?" she asked, her eyes avoiding his for a moment, making Tayuya's eyes widen significantly at the first notable sign that the woman had any nerves at all in her lithe body.

Ino gasped when Naruto grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her into a firm hug. She felt a feeling of warmth grow within her and her forehead pressed into the nape of his neck as she wrapped her arms around his waist, her hands sliding up his back to rub in small circles.

Tayuya slumped in her chair while Anko removed her towel and pulled on a pair of black lace panties after summoning a backpack from a scroll. She pulled out her old coat and buttoned up before moving to grab Tayuya by the arm, "C'mon now. The two of them have some catching up to do. We should leave them alone. We can eat out tonight! What do ya say?"

The redhead blushed at the very thought of leaving the two alone in a hotel room. She glared at Ino, making it easily apparent to Anko that she was jealous of the beautiful blonde. She left with a huff, slamming the door before Anko could get out, making the older jonin open the door again and close it quietly this time to keep from disturbing the couple.

"You asshole." Ino said, finally breaking the silence between them. However, her actions betrayed her words as she still caressed him so fully and affectionately.

"I am." He agreed, still holding her firmly as if he were scared she would somehow escape his clutches. "I can't believe how long it's been."

"You could've at least sent me a letter."

"I couldn't face you after failing you like that… not even in writing."

"What are you talking about?"

Naruto shook his head, pressing his forehead into hers. "You almost killed yourself by using your mind-body-transfer. I could feel you slipping away, and I know that you can't possibly have been good enough at the time to hold onto the jutsu for as long as you had without damaging yourself… were there any side-effects from chakra poisoning?" Naruto asked, his hands reaching down to grasp hers.

She shook her head, "None… just this scar on my arm. It doesn't look too pretty."

Naruto nodded and grasped the arm where she was wearing the purple bracer. He held her hand out, supinated, and began unhooking the clasps before pulling down the zipper.

"No, don't…"

"I need to see it." He said, gripping her wrist just as she was about to pull it away from him.

Ino relented, sighing slowly and closing her eyes as she looked away from him. He pulled off the bracer and let it drop onto the bed beside them. He took a breath to push all worry out of his mind for fear of offending the girl in his arms.

The scarring of the haphazard map on her arm showed a crude drawing of a bridge, a route between two images of what looked like trees that lead down some stairs to Konoha's massive wall where a part of the wall was pressed to activate a hidden door. In his mind he remembered every step even though he wasn't the one in control as he walked it. The marks had healed somewhat, but the scarring was apparent and it was on her arm where it couldn't always be covered. Naruto pressed his finger down on the first mark that was made which was the beginning of the bridge and he slowly followed her drawing as if he knew each stroke she made with the kunai to make it. The worst part of the amateur tattoo was that Orochimaru was written in large kanji along its side; and like a pest, the serpent's name refused to fade in the slightest. It was the largest, most prominent scar on her arm, without a doubt.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, tearing up.

He furrowed his brows. "You did all you could, Ino. More than you should have. I wanted you to just stay home… live out the rest of your life in peace and never worry about him or me again." He wasn't sure if that was what he wanted back then, but it was somewhere along those lines. He realized that he had plenty of time to mature throughout the years.

"You really are an asshole. How could you expect me to just forget about you like that after that kiss you gave me? Don't tell me you were just playing with me when you did that!"

He shook his head quickly, gulping at the anger apparent in her voice.

"Don't make me angry, Naruto. You shouldn't have tried to sacrifice yourself like that, you idiot! Baka! Baka!" Ino gripped his shirt tightly even as she cried into his chest, trying to hide her face so that she could hide her tears.

Naruto held her tight, his cheek pressed against hers as he closed his eyes.

"I know, I am. I am… Ino, why are you here in the capitol?"

"What?" She asked, rubbing away her tears with her arm before looking back up at him.

"What are you doing all of the way out here? I feel like I'm under an illusion…"

Ino bit her lip and gripped the hem of his pants, pulling him close so she pressed her body into his as she gazed directly into his eyes. "Do I feel like an illusion?" His face flushed at the very forward way she carried herself. He knew it wasn't a genjutsu simply because of how brash she was; nothing really changed about her.

He kissed her. She moaned and pulled on the back of his neck, bringing him with her as she fell on her back on the surface of the bed. She bit his lower lip and pressed her tongue gently against the pinched tuft of flesh that she caught in her mouth before letting go and searching his lips for a way inside. He pulled on her so that she lay on top of him as the two explored each other thoroughly. By the time they realized it, the sun had long since set and the moon was sitting curiously in the sky as it peered in through their bedroom window.

Ino gasped when he nibbled on her throat. Her hands found their way under his shirt and she pulled it up above his head while he lifted one arm at a time to get it off.

While kissing along the side of her neck, Naruto took a deep breath to try and draw some of the sweet scent that came off of her beautiful blonde locks. He groaned when she scraped her nails along his back as their entanglement of limbs and tongues continued like the waves of the ocean.

Ino's face flushed when she felt Naruto's; her hands slowly reached down and she felt him carefully, making the blond young man gasp delectably. Their lips met again as her hands worked his belt enthusiastically.

* * *

><p>Anko smiled at Tayuya as they entered their own room shortly after their dinner at a sushi restaurant famous for their flamboyant ways of cooking, including using fire jutsu shaped like a dragon to cook.<p>

Tayuya was frowning without restraint, upset that they let the two lovebirds share a room for the night when she knew what the only possible outcome could be.

"What a great place, huh?" she asked. "Hm, we should order something nice to drink to top off such a great night!"

"I just want to go to bed," Tayuya mumbled, walking over to the bed and dropping down abruptly over the sheets.

"Fine, but we should really talk to Naruto tomorrow about this Kira tournament. There is a lot of money being thrown around at places like these and Orochimaru probably has some contacts attending it. It's not too hard to spot them if we're all looking out for them… plus, I know how to get the best seats in the house." Anko suggested, grinning as she tiptoed over to Tayuya.

"What? How do we do that? Wait, what are you doing?"

"Well, we need to really doll you up tomorrow and get you out of that crappy clothing you're wearing… seriously, what's with these shorts? I heard you were stunning when they caught you; why change the clothes you wear _after_ you left Nonoko?"

Tayuya rolled her eyes, "Unlike someone I know, I don't want my clothes and my ass to be the only thing that people see in me when they meet me. I am not superficial."

"Maybe not," Anko said, frowning, "but by hiding away the goods it makes for really lousy first impressions, you know that?"

Tayuya shrugged, crossing her arms.

Anko smiled, "You know, I bet even Naruto might notice you if you dress up a little nicer around him… and maybe stop cussing when you're around him too… what's up with that, anyways? You didn't cuss all night tonight and I rarely hear you say a bad word around me if we're alone."

"You don't make me nervous… well, you do, but not in the same way." Tayuya muttered, sitting up in the bed as Anko sat on its edge.

"I see… well, if you just gave in every once in a while to my advances I bet you'd be a little less nervous… hey, you're eighteen, aren't you? You're legal."

"Yeah, gee, I guess not being a lesbian has nothing to do with the fact that I'm not interested in you in the slightest." Tayuya said, frowning.

Anko laughed. "Well, that's ok then, because I'm not a lesbian either."

"Bisexual. Whatever. Anyways, you are weird anyways. I bet if you were a man you'd still be into men, huh?"

She smirked, saying, "No shit."

Tayuya stared at her for a second before breaking out into laughter. She rubbed tears from her eyes as she continued to laugh, forgetting the predicament that Naruto had gotten himself into, Anko's convincing her to get another room together and leave the two of them alone, and the fact that she wasn't the one getting into his pants tonight.

* * *

><p>"I have to go with my father, Naruto. He asked me early yesterday to come along with him today to see the Daimyo's nephew."<p>

"Can I come with you?" he asked, still holding her with his shirt off as they lie in bed with the TV on. There was an accident on the news where a man fell from a six story building nearby and miraculously survived. They were interviewing him on the television, as he was already somehow up and moving again even though he hit pure pavement after falling from so high up. Naruto paid little attention to it, but Ino's eyes were fixed on the screen even as he began reaching up into her top.

"Ah! No, we can't again. Seriously, I have to go. I'll be late if I wait any longer."

Naruto sighed, "Fine. I'd really like to go… maybe say hi to your dad. I liked him; he was always real nice to me, you know?"

Ino looked at him and remembered how her father talked about the boy fondly whenever the conversation came up. She smiled and nodded. "Ok… I think he'd like that. You can come with me, Naruto."

She sighed into the kiss she received and the two young shinobi began searching the sides of the bed for articles of clothing that got tossed around as they slept.

As they were walking into the estate of the Daimyo, where his youngest nephew was kept indoors in light of the tragic events that were occurring around him, Ino whispered to Naruto, "Alright, don't you dare tell my dad that I was with you last night or he'll think we were up to something."

"You want me to lie to an interrogation expert? I couldn't do it back then, how am I supposed to do it now?"

"Well, you got better at kissing, so you should be better at talking too, I hope!"

Naruto chuckled. "We were terrible, weren't we?"

Ino scoffed, rolling her eyes. "We? You were the terrible one. I thought I was getting kissed by a vacuum hose."

Naruto grit his teeth, "Yeouch. Harsh."

Ino snickered.

Naruto swallowed when he saw Yamanaka Inoichi look at him with narrowed eyes. There was something in his eyes that made it seem as if he knew what had happened the other night. Ino looked like her innocent little self, but Naruto was sweating under the inspector's light.

"So you are alive. It's nice to see you, Uzumaki."

"Same here, Yamanaka-san," Naruto replied albeit awkwardly.

"Isn't it nice, daddy?" Ino asked, surprising her father who hadn't heard that word said like that in such a long time. He looked at Naruto and his harsh look seemed to soften a little bit and he nodded slowly.

"Quite nice… come along. We shouldn't keep them waiting. So, darling, I figure that since you're closer to his age you'll be able to get him to open up a little more than I was able to. I do have to warn you that you should be very careful not to let yourself get too wrapped up in his complicated life. He has a very sad upbringing even as the nephew of our Daimyo and his memories can be quite painful to experience."

Ino nodded. "I understand, sir." Her eyes looked fierce as she walked through the door that lead to the room and the young child's bed as he sat up for the first time in months to look at the three of them as they entered his room.

A little weirded out by the way he was looking at him, Naruto tried to avert his eyes until the boy pointed directly at him.

"Uh… hey, what's up…" Naruto said nervously.

The young boy's eyes gazed into his and he stood up from his bed, much to Inoichi's dismay as the older man rushed over to the boy to ease him back into his seat. "He's never done this before, what's going on?" he asked, scared for the fragile boy's health.

"You are Uzumaki Naruto, there's no mistaking it; I watched you die."

Ino and her father turned to look at Naruto as he stood there quietly; drawn into the black eyes of the young boy whose prophetic dreams spelt death for the residents of one of the largest cities in the country.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note<strong>: I appreciate the reviews, especially the ones asking real questions or commenting on parts of the story. I think this week will be a busy week, so I may not update until Friday, but we'll see. As I've said, I have a whole chapter written out for the things going on in Konoha but I'm not sure they'll fit in quite well with what's happening right now in the story.

If you have any questions or comments, please send me a private message or review! I welcome any of them. I prefer signed reviews so I can respond to you one by one, and some of you have even had your private messaging blocked so I wasn't able to respond, but anyways, have a wonderful week and we'll see about the next chapter.


	21. Chapter 21

"You're a little different… most people beg me to tell them what happened in my dream." The Daimyo's young nephew, whose name Naruto didn't have, smirked knowingly as he walked across the room to stand in front of the fireplace. "I suppose they think they can change the fact that they will die as I've foreseen."

Naruto watched him, his eyes narrowed and his arms crossed as he tried to stay as calm as possible. "I guess I am different." He shrugged, looking at Ino who had her hands clenched crossly at her sides. "Besides, why should I believe you? Because you said my name? I'm a shinobi; I understand the value of gaining information. It's not impossible for you to bribe a few people at the hotel to get my information… or have someone follow me. You certainly have the means..."

"I had no interest in you until I saw you in my dream. You told me your name and then jumped… Forgive me. I suppose you didn't want to hear about it…" The young boy laughed and, out of his pocket, he took a few Ryo notes. "You'll burn… just like this."

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 21<span>

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><p>Naruto winced when he clenched his fist shut fiercely around the piece of paper to wad it up before throwing it into the fireplace. What he just threw into the fire could've covered the two rooms that he and the girls were staying in at the hotel.<p>

"That was a lot of money… next time you do something stupid like that, you should think about giving it away to a charity or something. That might make you feel better than burning it, maybe kill away this curse that has been placed on you."

"Some say it's a gift."

"Not when the people you dream about die; sounds like a bonafide curse to me." He crossed his arms, "Are all rich kids as spoiled as you? That was a lot of money."

He turned, his grin gone as he furrowed his brow and tilted his head, looking especially confused at Naruto's indifference. "You get so worked up over a little bit of money…"

Naruto's face was starting to turn red. "I've known people that died trying to make less than that on a mission. So, yes, I hate wastefulness."

"Huh… listen… don't you want to know how you died?" The boy asked, frowning.

Naruto rolled his eyes while Ino couldn't help but be intrigued; what her father told her, even though he did not exclude anything so far, did not prepare her for this boy. She wondered what sort of life he has led up until this point and why her father warned her about going into his mind.

"Naruto, you should at least hear him out."

Naruto frowned, looking at Ino knowing that he would if she recommended it. She looked at him sternly, not backing down from her suggestion.

"I guess… but we already know he's bullshitting, listen to what he said. He said that I introduced myself and then I fell somewhere. That's a lie, because he already knew my name. So much for prophecy; At the most, this boy- what's your name?" Naruto asked, interrupting himself for a second to find out what he was called so that he could stop calling him using pronouns.

"My name is Hi no Ichizoku Minato." At Naruto's confusion, knowing that was the name of his father, the young boy smirked and said, "Yes, I am named after your father. He was a very famous man."

"You called me Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto said with glaring eyes that narrowed to the point Inoichi was starting to think they'd disappear off of his face.

"Yes. I also said that you would introduce yourself… except, when you do, it will be as Namikaze Naruto."

Inoichi stood in front of him, smiling kindly at young Minato, "Thank you for your time, Minato-dono. Give me just one second to speak to Naruto-kun here while Ino runs a diagnostic on you and uses one of our mental checks to see if it's safe to dive in, is that fine with you?"

"Of course. Until you introduce the real you… Uzumaki Naruto." Minato said, smiling courteously with a slight bow of his head before walking back to the bed and taking a seat while Ino reached into a bag that Inoichi handed her. He and Naruto then stepped out of the room in a rush with the older man pushing on Naruto's back to get him out of the room as soon as possible.

_I have to try and knock some sense into this kid, _he thought, biting his lips as Naruto protested the shoving._ He doesn't quite understand how precarious his situation is now. _

When they were outside of the room alone, Inoichi asked Naruto to have a seat on a small bench in the middle of a hallway with plants and paintings decorating the walls.

As Naruto took his seat, Inoichi smiled at him and said. "Naruto, do you understand what is going on here and how things have changed?"

He frowned, looking at Inoichi directly in his eyes. "What do I say to that: '_I watched you die'_?" he mocked, rolling his eyes. "As if you could give any more of a bad omen than that," said Naruto. "I say he should just keep that shit to himself. Let people die if it's their time."

"What if it's your time?" Inoichi asked with a twisted knot in his stomach. It was hard to speak to him when he was certain himself that Naruto would meet his end soon; after witnessing so much death, Inoichi came to believe that the boy's prophecy was indisputable.

"Well, I'm not going to be paranoid about it; if it happens, it happens." Naruto said with finality, and he stood up to head back into the room. "I'm ready to go back in. I want to see how Ino is doing."

Inoichi nodded with a grimace on his face. "Naruto," he began fearfully, "it's OK to be scared."

He looked back at the older man and nodded. "Thanks for the support… If I'm going to die, then I guess that means I'll have to kill Orochimaru today instead of later. What do you think? Do I have a chance?"

Inoichi laughed. "Not a chance in hell. I'm pretty sure you're still well under my league."

"I'm resourceful." Naruto said, grinning impishly.

"Speaking of which, resourceful people know how to be safe, right?" Inoichi said out of the blue, confusing the younger blond.

"Yeah, I guess." He said, not sure where the man was going with this.

Inoichi gave him the most solid look of warning he had. Actually, the look was more murderous than a stern warning; an incredibly violent gesture that was so subtle that it was almost like he was smiling. _Wait, he is smiling, _Naruto realized,_ this is where Ino gets her attitude from. It's terrifying._

"The only safe sex is no sex, Naruto. Do we have an understanding?"

Naruto blinked; he looked at him mutely until Inoichi leaned in closer, his soft 'smile' turning into a frown with a full-on glare.

"Do we have an understanding?" he repeated, carving Naruto up with his eyes causing him to nod in response.

"Great! Now, let's go on in."

Naruto shook his head after Inoichi turned his back. He followed the jonin in carefully, scared the man would spin around all of a sudden and grab him by the head and snap his neck. The creeping smell of the man's killing intent was putridly strong.

"Naruto!" Ino called, spotting him and her father again at the door. "Ok, will you please come and talk with young Minato-dono, please? He has more to say to you."

Naruto gave up. "Sure," he said.

Minato looked at Naruto demurely as he sat with his legs crossed on the bed and his hands sitting in his lap as he watched Naruto take a seat by his bed. He shuffled slightly in his chair before looking back at Minato in silence.

Naruto waited patiently for the young boy to continue, but when he didn't the blond sighed and leaned into his palm as he set his elbow down to rest on the arm of his cozy chair. Regardless of the comfort, however, he was pretty sure he would prefer the sturdiness of a folding chair.

"So…" Naruto said, irritated now that the boy was waiting for a cue to start.

"When you introduced yourself to me, you were reaching for a chain that came down from Mount Krakatoa. There was smoke rising into the sky behind you and the red glow of the lava within the volcano made it obvious that it was about ready to erupt."

Ino looked up when she heard the name, "Ah! Krakatoa; isn't that the volcano on the island within the mainland?

Inoichi nodded slowly, stroking his chin as he looked at young Minato. "So you're saying that Naruto told you his name was Namikaze, he then grabbed the chain and… what? He climbed up to the top of the mountain?"

Minato smirked, nodding affirmatively. "Yes. He climbed all of the way to the top… then he yelled out as if he were talking to someone once he reached the top, but there was no one there. Soon afterwards, he fell into the volcano just as it began to erupt."

Inoichi frowned. "You're saying that Krakatoa is going to erupt when Naruto gets there?"

He did not answer, but the smirk that stayed smeared on his face collectively gave the group a bad feeling.

"This isn't good. We should inform the Daimyo. He just left for the village near Mount Krakatoa soon to spend some time with the samurai that train there, and his trip doesn't end for a whole month. He'll come back early October for the beginning of the martial arts tournament and Hi no Kuni's yearly bird festival here at the capitol." Inoichi said.

Naruto looked at Minato and gave him a slight nod of his head to get his attention as he was looking back and forth between him and Inoichi. "Minato. Do you know when I'm supposed to die? Is it today?"

The young boy frowned, "I'm not sure… but I haven't been wrong in any of my predictions so far… all thirty-two of them. You _will_ die."

"Hm. I think thirty-three is a bad number. Honestly, it's probably about time you ran out of luck, kid." Naruto said, smirking. "Is there anything else I should know about your dream?"

Minato tried to think, looking down at his feet for a moment as he tried to remember the dream that was quickly fading away in his memory. "Some parts are fuzzy. One of those is a meeting you had with a man who fell off a tall building and survived. Not only that, but he wasn't even really hurt. He stood and walked after."

Ino looked at Naruto now with additional interest in the story that was on the news earlier that day when they were in the room. "That's…" she began to say, but when she caught Naruto's smile at her she stopped speaking and only smiled back shyly.

Naruto nodded at her, while Inoichi looked at the two of them inquiringly. "You know what he's talking about?"

"Yes," said Ino, looking back at the boy. "We saw it on the news… uh, Minato… you, by chance, didn't happen to prophesize that man's death, did you? The one who fell? He should've died from that."

He smiled openly. "I didn't… let's hope it's not one of you two next" said Minato.

Naruto stared him down fiercely, "You just keep dreaming about me kid. If not, you'll be dreaming about yourself one day soon."

Ino looked at Minato with an ugly frown on her face, adding "Charming." Her disposition changed when she turned to Naruto and grabbed him by his arm before dragging him away. "Daddy, we need to talk. Hang on a sec."

Naruto looked apprehensive about just leaving the boy and the wicked smirk he wore. He wondered what Ino wanted to talk about with him alone, and was surprised that he was sitting in the same seat he sat in earlier when her father wanted to talk to him.

He may have looked a little nervous, but his eyes kept that same demeanor that Ino always saw no matter what the circumstances were.

"You're being stupid again."

Naruto grinned in response.

She looked at Naruto and saw someone different than she expected. He was a little bit more callous, but that wasn't the problem. She remembered the kiss the night before and knew his kissing improved too much for him not to have had any experience; not that she was so innocent herself. She did try and date a few boys, kissed two of them, but she often grew bored and found that she was prone to toy with their emotions rather than actually take anyone seriously in a relationship; after some disappointment, Ino decided to focus on her shinobi career. That is, until Naruto came back into her life.

Not that she decided that she would stop being a kunoichi; she loved what she did. She'd never give it up, even if he asked her to, but she knew that around him she didn't have to put up such a strong front, and neither did he; they could be strong together, for each other.

_Maybe it's because I've been searching for him some way or another and in more ways than one through those other boys… and I didn't even know it… jeez, Ino, that's so corny I can't believe you even thought that._

She took his hand in hers and looked him directly in the eyes, alerting him somewhat as his line of sight suddenly honed in on hers. "I'm upset." She said, her eyes looking down at his hands as she caressed them with hers.

"What's the matter?" he asked, turning his hand so that he could stroke her palm gently with his thumb.

"You're taking this pretty well…" she whispered, her eyes slowly peering at the doorway to Minato's room.

He smirked and slowly leaned in to look her more closely in the eyes, ignoring all rules of personal space as he was close enough to feel her breath on his lips. "Well, Miss Yamanaka," he whispered, "it's not the first time that I've thought my death was inevitable..."

She gasped at his smart remark and punched him playfully, and eyed him knowingly with pursed lips. "Don't play dumb. Why aren't you worried about this? Thirty-two other people have already died. Some were even close to him!"

Naruto frowned, "It just seems fishy. I don't believe in this kind of stuff anyways."

She nodded slowly, looking around. "It is sort of weird, I agree… but still. What happens if he's right, Naruto? We just found each other… I can't let you go again."

Ino blushed. Admittedly, she sounded a little desperate saying that; however, it couldn't be any closer to the truth than that. She realized the other night that she not only cared about him as a friend, but she sincerely hoped that they could one day be more than friends; officially only, because she already saw that in him. Living through Orochimaru with him solidified that notion for her.

"I wouldn't just let myself die so easily either. Don't worry about it Ino. I think I'll confront his vision. He says I was talking to someone but he couldn't see anyone there. And he said I would find a chain coming from the top of the volcano… I saw something similar to that just outside of Mizu. If it's the same thing, then I have something amazing to show you."

Ino smiled. "I can't wait." She said, squeezing his hand tightly in hers as they sat in silence while her father worked.

* * *

><p>"That feels really, really weird. Are you sure we need to do this?" Chojuro whined as another acupuncture needle was pushed into a spot on his left shoulder. When Haku nodded Chojuro sighed.<p>

"I still can't believe you're a dude. That's so weird. I was really checking you out for a while until you told me that. Now I feel… weird."

Haku smiled softly. "Well, I appreciate the compliment. Now hold still: if I do not put these chakra poisoning needles directly into each of your tenketsu on your back you could end up being paralyzed from the poisoning of your system."

"Ok." He muttered, groaning when the pretty young man named Haku used several handfuls of needles to find each and every tenketsu along his back. "Whoa, that feels too good. Was that my back popping?"

Haku shook her head. "No, that's chakra escaping clogged tenketsu. It's sort of like passing gas. You feel relief afterwards."

"Alright, that's weird. By the way, Haku, stay away from my butt, ok?"

The dark haired man rolled his eyes at the suggestion and countered, "Just because I'm pretty doesn't mean I'm into men; you were the one _really checking me out_ earlier, not me you."

Chojuro laughed. "Hey, I was just joking. Besides, you're hot. I bet we could marry you off to a Lord's son-make a ton of money."

"You're an idiot" said Haku, sticking another needle in the base of his neck.

"Ack!" Chojuro cried out painfully.

* * *

><p>"So, you just came from Mizu… and they're currently looking for the Yondaime Hokage's son, Namikaze Naruto?"<p>

Chojuro nodded as he rolled his shoulders, one at a time, and the pain from his internal injury healing abruptly as Haku pulled out the final acupuncture needle. "Ah! I feel so much better! Where did you learn that?"

Haku smiled, responding "I learned some of it here in Hi, actually. A traveler was crossing the country to head toward Mizu last year and we escorted him; in return, he showed me some medic ninjutsu and also a bit of his practice in acupuncture. The rest, I practiced on my enemies."

Chojuro looked at him in disbelief. "So, you learned how to heal people by killing them?"

He laughed, shaking his head. "I try to only stop my opponents, not kill them. I prefer that everyone walk away with their lives at the end of the day."

"That might one day cost you yours." Chojuro said, bluntly.

When Haku smiled, though, Chojuro immediately felt bad for saying it. "I didn't mean anything by it… well, I mean, nothing bad. I just don't think you should spare the lives of your enemies if it means they'll want to come back and kill you later."

"I know. It's not the smartest practice, I've been told. Many times, as a matter-of-fact; Zabusa gets really angry with me when I let people go… usually I can convince him to not kill, but he's rather headstrong."

"Ah! Momichi Zabusa?" Chojuro asked in surprise. "He's still alive? I heard he was working for a crook over in Wave recently; Gatou was supposed to be a pretty cut-throat kind of guy."

Haku shook his head, "He was, certainly. That was one person that had to be killed… unfortunately. His sort of evil didn't just affect innocent bystanders, but society for Wave and Hi no Kuni as a whole. He was a terrible person."

Chojuro blinked, "Was. Wow, so even with all of that money he had… he couldn't afford to save his life."

Haku laughed. "I suppose not… so, how did you know of Zabusa?"

Chojuro grinned pointing to the sword that was sitting against a tree nearby, as they had moved further away from the beach into a small forested area in between the water and Haku and Zabusa's campsite.

"I'm the last swordsman of the mist… well, Zabusa I guess is technically still one of the swordsmen, but he's a missing-nin now."

"Yes. It's an interesting life he leads."

"Must be hard."

"Yes, however it can be quite rewarding."

Chojuro looked confused. "Why?" he asked. "I can't imagine having to run from hunter nin to be a fun existence."

"Not to say that it hasn't been a hard life; we struggle to survive daily, living off of rations and small missions that can be given to nuke-nin like us. I have to say that my favorite part about the life I lead is that I am with my precious person, and also I can call the entire world my home, and not just a single village or country. I feel less tied down, this way."

Chojuro smirked. "Still sounds crazy… but kind of nice, I guess."

Haku smiled.

* * *

><p>Sitting in his wheelchair was Uchiha Sasuke, his eyes studying the room carefully; before him were several head council members, including every clan from Hyuga to Aburame, Haruno and even representations of particular groups such as the newly appointed head of the ANBU, whom wore a mask and shroud to cover his identity even within this group of prestige. Danzo was not in attendance, but Sarutobi's old comrades were. The Hokage himself sat at the center of the long, crescent-shaped table with a pit of fire burning in its center in between the speaker, Uchiha Sasuke, and the hailed group before him.<p>

"What you propose, Sasuke-san, is incredibly dangerous."

"Not only dangerous Hokage-sama but a threat to our very way of life. I must admit that it seems farfetched-"

"Indeed," muttered the representative of the Nara clan, Shikaku.

"-and yet is it not a possibility that this is what the Snake Sannin seeks? His goal of immortality, as the Hokage himself said, falls into place perfectly with the opening of the scroll of sealing… its folds held seals that even our current Hokage has not unlocked, because they required something very incredible to happen, an appreciable foresight by the Shodai to have the two warring clans **finally** come together as one and work as one. It is his acknowledgement that one day there would be peace between the Senju and the Uchiha, and that one day they would need this to combat a different type of evil."

"It is still… so mad and unreasonable. To think that anyone, even Orochimaru, would want to make a deal with the Shinigami is… frightening." Homura said with a bit of shakiness in his voice.

"And yet so like him… to rely on the forbidden and tread on the lives of others to accomplish his goals." The Hokage said.

"The jutsu… tell us, what does it do again?" Asked Hyuga Hiashi who was still unsettled by the fact that humans and the Shinigami can even speak, let alone strike bargains.

"It allows an Uchiha and a Senju to make a wish in unity; asking directly of the Shinigami himself and it can only be used once in a person's lifetime… now whether that implies the worst, which they will die shortly after, or best, which they may not wish again, I'm not sure."

"How were you able to open the scroll's hidden seal? I thought you said you required the help of a Senju to be able to find it and read it?" asked Inuzuka Tsume, her arms crossed and a scowl on her face as she looked at the young, Uchiha upstart.

Stepping forward, the ANBU captain spoke in an eerily monotonous tone from behind his mask. "I can explain: our very own Tenzo* has assisted Uchiha Sasuke in his endeavors regarding the Scroll of Sealing."

Shikaku furrowed his brows, "Tenzo? The test tube baby? The one with the Shodai's cells? Where is Tenzo now?"

The ANBU captain tilted his head and spoke in a deep voice, "Hum… he should be arriving in Kumamoto shortly along with Yamanaka Inoichi and his younger daughter."

Sasuke looked at Sarutobi with a confused look on his face, but the older man simply nodded. "Thank you for the explanation, captain," and then he turned to Sasuke and smiled, "Please continue, Sasuke."

Sasuke eventually motioned to Chouza who opened the scroll to show an Uzu special seal that encompassed the entire scroll, from beginning to end, becoming a mercilessly long seal that unlocked the means of acquiring a one-of-a-kind jutsu that would allow a Senju and an Uchiha together to speak to the Shinigami and ask for one desire. It required their cooperation and a blood offering upon the scroll, which had become visible to everyone due to a locking seal that was removed by Sasuke late in his study of the scroll.

Sasuke's extensive knowledge of sealing jutsu is due to his discovery of the seal, though it wasn't a new discovery, since Sarutobi had figured out it was there before but did not know what to do with it. Thanks to that seal, he spent months reading on life and language of the Uzu people, the Uzumaki clan, their special seals and everything he could about the Senju and Uchiha. He even undertook special instruction in several ANBU training classes in order to further his knowledge on fuinjutsu, all thanks to Sarutobi's influence as Hokage.

After years of research and his powerful Uchiha eyes which had adapted to see the inner-workings of seals that were initially invisible to the normal eye. He did not understand why he was able to see the seals because they were not visible from the start and the Hokage only knew they were there because the Yondaime had worked with an Uchiha before to try and decipher the seal long ago. He had to go through the scroll day after day until he began to see traces of them. It wasn't until he confirmed with Sarutobi that his finding was real and not just a hallucination of his own mind, and then he was finally able to begin comprehending what the scroll's true purpose was.

"So… this deal with the Shinigami. It grants any wish that the user desires?" Hiashi asked in a way that told Sasuke that he was just recollecting the facts to get them straight. Sasuke frowned.

"I'm sure there are limits to that wish… and consequences." Sasuke said, looking grim. "One can only imagine the power of the Shinigami, which exists in another plane of existence and yet can dip his hand here to ferry our souls to the land of the dead… I assume he is not one to be trifled with."

Hiashi eyed him coldly, as if his eyes were made of stone.

Sarutobi lit his pipe and puffed on it, looking up towards the ceiling. "Not simply that, but this jutsu… the Shinigami, only one other person knew how to use the Shinigami for a jutsu. But that jutsu had very dire consequences: the user and the target is said to do battle forever in the belly of the beast, their souls trapped in an infinite struggle in battle against one another, where neither could die, for they were already dead, and neither could win, for they could never leave."

Sasuke nodded. "The fact that the Shinigami exists at all means there are so many more questions… possibilities… like is the Shinigami the end? Why does it exist and what is its purpose with us? I don't mean the tales that are told to children and fools, but a real, explainable reason. There has to be one."

Sarutobi stood up. "Perhaps," he began. "Thank you very much for the knowledge you have bestowed upon us and it is my hope that you continue to produce more and more information about the scroll as your research comes along. This meeting is adjourned."

As the ANBU captain passed he said to Sasuke, "The possibilities are endless, Sasuke-kun. Great presentation."

Sasuke eyed the dark figure of the captain as he left, and he shook his head. He sighed, thinking about Ino and how she was currently in the capitol so far away. Thinking of Ino always reminded him of his promise to her to bring Naruto back to the village. He wondered how his friend was faring now and the congratulatory words of the Hokage on a job well done slowly drowned out as he wondered how, with a wheelchair, he was supposed to accomplish that.

* * *

><p>"Alright you two, run along." Inoichi said, finally exiting Minato's lavish room. "Ino, honey, I know I asked for your help, but I think we've had enough insight for today on him. Maybe the two of you can come back some other time?"<p>

Ino nodded, grabbing Naruto's arm to walk along with him until she noticed he wasn't budging.

"I can't come back after this," said Naruto.

Inoichi arched a brow. "Why is that?"

"I'm a missing nin," he said, "I can't be here for too long because I don't want Kiri or Konoha to find me."

"Naruto… you should really come back to Konoha. Trust me, all of this time they've been easy on the reins because you were in Mizu and that brought up a lot of political issues… but now that you're no longer in Mizu either, I am pretty sure they're going to send someone out to trap you and bring you back. That, or…"

The young man nodded at him, making it so that Inoichi didn't have to actually say it.

"I know. I can't just ignore this, though. I have to go to Krakatoa and just face this head on. That way I can warn the Daimyo and try and figure out a way to hit Orochimaru where it hurts at the same time."

"You have some big aspirations kid… wouldn't you rather just sit at home and read a book or something? Or maybe learn to work for a nice flower shop… I'm going to be hiring soon, you know, since we're expanding the store and redoing the greenhouse."

Naruto smiled, "I appreciate the offer." He shook his head though, and took Ino's hands and said to her, his eyes gazing into hers fully as he spoke, "I have to leave now, Ino."

Ino felt her world come crashing down on her. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out at first. She thought that this was it; Naruto would leave the capitol to hide away from the prophecy, as he couldn't exactly die in Krakatoa if he avoided it altogether. But no, he sought danger like the thrill was worth all of it. Ino bit her lip and shook her head, and then she slapped him.

"Baka. You can't just kiss me and leave, I told you that already. You have to come back to me, no matter what."

"Kiss?" Inoichi asked, shocked.

Ignoring him, Naruto squinted away the pain from the slap to the face and shook his head, smiling softly at the young woman who was so upset with him. "Ino, I don't think I'll ever run from something just because it seems impossible. I have to stay strong, Ino. Not for me, but for Konoha, and, especially, you."

"You already are strong. You don't need to be any stronger. Sometimes it's ok to run away, Naruto." Ino said, unable to look him directly in the eyes as he spoke. She even had to turn away to keep from smacking him again.

"What do you mean you kissed?" Inoichi rephrased his question, his face flushed.

"Two times." He said to her father quickly. He then turned to Ino and said, "I know that Ino, and when it is something that I can run away from, I will. Otherwise, I have to continue walking forward even if it's scary to do it."

"You know, I think I might just hate you if you had said anything else. Naruto, I like this about you; your resolve. But," she said, pausing slightly before continuing, "It also scares me like nothing else."

Naruto smiled and pulled her close, "Compared to the stunt you pulled off against Orochimaru, this is nothing. Trust me."

She smiled back, her eyelids drooping slightly as she started to lean in. "I do… but I care about you."

"I care about you too."

They kissed again. Inoichi could've sworn that an explosion had just went off, because he felt like this side of his daughter he had never seen and probably didn't ever want to see was forced into his line of sight. To hell with the hunter ninjas or volcanoes, Naruto was going to die right now.

"Mm… that's three times." Ino whispered to him after the kiss, giggling as he kissed her again.

"Four… five… six…"

Inoichi, due to a lack of oxygen to the brain, passed out.

* * *

><p>Ino and her father were sitting in their hotel room watching television. Inoichi had an icepack on his head as he lied restlessly on the bed. Ino was busy writing in a small journal and then going through one of the many scrolls that she carried along with her on missions to continue her training.<p>

"Daddy, what do you think of Naruto?" she asked.

Inoichi groaned.

"That boy gives me a headache."

* * *

><p>Author's note: A pretty decently sized set-up chapter. I have a really fun idea for Kushina's chains that are spread throughout the shinobi world. Forget about those? Naruto is on his way to find the physics-defying kunai and unlock another part of the Kyubi's cage.<p>

I think that Naruto's and Ino's attachment to one another seems rather natural. A rocky road is coming up ahead. Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but often than not stronger bonds are formed with time and hard work, not a single moment of passion and glory.

Anyways, enough of my rambling. I'd really appreciate it if you'd take the time to review and let me know what you think or if you have any questions, ask. It makes me feel good :).


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

* * *

><p>Kushina was standing underneath the Hokage monument waiting under the pleasant shade of the mountain as the three o'clock sun peered over the edge of the rock sculpture. In the sun, her red hair became a magnificently carved ruby adorned upon her head. Her dark eyes, like smooth graphite with an onyx center, flickered with fire when she looked down at the bold, orange watch she wore on her slender wrist.<p>

Three twenty-two.

"I've been waiting for twenty minutes already." Kushina's shoulders sank. As she sulked, she began cursing her nerves and talking to herself. "Ooh! Shoot, why did I have to be so early? I should've known he would be on time. He just always has to be so perfect that it's like showing up earlier is just as bad as showing up late!" Kushina's cheeks bulged slightly as she huffed, annoyed. She crossed her arms as she looked at the watch again.

Three twenty-four.

She sighed. Closing her eyes, she took a few deep breaths and listened to the wind as it passed. "Alright… cool down, Kushina-chan. The only reason why you were so nervous was because he asked you out on your first real date together... it's your own fault for getting here so early. You already know him and should've known that he-

"Kushina!" She jumped at the sound of his voice. Biting her lip, Kushina tilted her wrist to look at the bright orange watch and check the time.

Three thirty.

"Minato," she said. "How are you?"

The blond smiled fondly at the rosette. "Wonderful. I was looking forward to our date all day." Her eyes caught a glimpse of his pearly whites when he walked up to her. "I'm happy to see you."

She blushed as their eyes met. "So am I."

"You look amazing."

She waved her arm at him frantically, shushing him, "Jeez! Not so loud! It's embarrassing!"

Chuckling, he shook his head. "No, I mean it, Kushina. You really do."

Kushina's heart thumped loudly in her chest and her eyelashes fluttered at the praise. She yelled at herself in her head to try and keep her nerves under control, but it only seemed to worsen the situation. She muttered a soft thank you as he took a step forwards.

He wasn't lying when he said it; she really was stunning. Her hair was done up in traditional Uzumaki fashion: bangs clipped three times at the front and the body of her hair twirled into a beautiful spiral bun on the back of her head held in place thanks to several needles and dexterous fingers.

A special strip of "paper" made out of animal hide parchment hung from the back of her head like a pony-tail attached to her hair; on the two sides of the parchment were words scribed in kanji: the first side said, "little fish," while the other said "big river**".** The parchment is a special tradition for young women in the Uzumaki clan.

Her earrings were a dusty red, shaped like kunai, and her lipstick was an even darker shade of red that seemed to be black at an angle. Amongst it all, it was Kushina's white, thigh-length dress and cherry red heeled sandals that made Minato's stomach flip in his gut.

The beautiful red sash around her waist held it all together so delicately and exquisitely that Minato had a hard time focusing on Kushina's eyes. The dress was sleeveless, but she wore a semi-see-through white poncho on top made of thinner material than the dress and pressed with subtle creases that accentuated her body but did not take away from the style of the dress nor cover the natural beauty of the wearer. To him, this dress perfectly accentuated Kushina. He silently hoped that he'd be seeing her in it more often. He looked at her wrists and saw that she still had the orange watch that he bought for her a few years ago. She always wore it, it seemed.

Minato looked her over from head to toe and silently asked himself why he decided to wait for so many years after their incident together outside of Konoha to finally go up to her and ask her out on a date. They had been friends ever since, and had even shared a kiss once in a while, but they had never gone out up until now. Perhaps it had to do with them being so young, and he somehow felt like he wasn't ready for a relationship. He looked back on it as a mistake, but one that he would now work his damndest to rectify.

He linked his arm with hers and looked down into her eyes. He always had eyes full of purpose, making her feel subconscious about herself. She still didn't feel very confident about her conviction; the words that she said when she was a young academy student about becoming Hokage didn't seem to hold water. In fact, the thought of becoming the Hokage had dissolved quite easily once she gained a friend in Minato. Everything she did up until the point where he saved her from her abductors a few years ago was a cry for attention. She wanted all of the attention in the classroom, in the village, because felt she had so little among her peers, and so she aspired to be the best and most revered in order to receive that attention and praise that she lacked and so desperately wanted.

"Are you ready, Kushina?"

"Uh…" she murmured, not quite catching his question. Guessing intuitively, she asked, "Are we gonna go somewhere nice?"

He grinned, "Yeah! We have all day, so I thought we could start with a snack at your favorite restaura-

"Oh! Ichiraku? Yes, please!" she pleaded, interrupting him in her excitement.

Minato laughed, "I knew you would like that… anyways, afterwards we'll go see that new play from the North, the one about the lord who falls in love with a peasant who betrays him."

Kushina frowned, "A play? Why can't we go see a movie instead? Oh! There's that new movie, what's it called? _The Seven Ninja_!"

With a smile, Minato calmly said, "It would mean a lot to me if you'd go see this play with me. I've seen it once before and, honestly, it touched me; I have been waiting to share it with you ever since we agreed to going out on a date and it just happens to be showing this month."

Kushina looked at him for a second and smiled demurely, looking off to the side as he gazed down into her eyes. "You've been waiting that long? … Is it really good?"

"It's a _must_-see."

Her fingers intertwined with his and she leaned into his shoulder, nodding. "Fine, but next time, you're taking me to watch _The Seven Ninja_ **and **_You Don't Know Shi-Nobi-San_. Ok?"

"It's a deal!" He said, smiling brightly as he led her toward Ichiraku's. She fell in step with him and grasped his arm securely while they walked.

"And after that?"

"The Kanto festival is later on tonight, so we can go there after dinner."

Kushina brightened up, "Kanto Matsuri? Oh, I haven't been to that one yet. It's the one with the bamboo poles and the paper lanterns, right?"

"That's the one," he said.

"The dancing lights?" she asked eagerly.

He grinned, and it was the only answer she needed from him.

After eating a bowl of Ichiraku's ramen and speaking with the owner, Teuchi-san, they left to catch the play which Minato had already purchased the tickets for. When they stepped through the threshold of the theatre, Minato and Kushina were bombarded with greetings by the staff and even the owner of the established arena. It was purchased by an Uzu wealthy merchant many years ago when Kushina first arrived in the village after her home was destroyed in the war.

Minato spoke with the owner, who explained his excitement at seeing one of their most loyal customers finally bring a date with him on one of his many visits, better yet that it was an Uzumaki of all sorts. Kushina listened quietly, her cheeks burning slightly in embarrassment in the fact that she had not found out about his interest in theatre. After thanking the owner she vaguely knew as an uncle of one of her friends within the clan, the two of them made their way to the theatre to turn in their tickets. Minato took out a small wallet shaped like a frog named "Gama-chan"; Kushina grinned happily when she saw it and pinched Minato's cheek, squealing _kawaii _when he pulled the tickets out of the small frog's mouth. After turning in their tickets, however, Kushina tried to step past the man standing by the small ticket counter booth only to be stopped right away.

"Not down there, miss, your tickets are quite special. Tonight you will be seated at the balcony." He smiled at the girl who quickly turned around to look up at Minato who smiled awkwardly at the prying look she was giving him. "Right this way please."

"Were these expensive?" she demanded, her grip on his arm tightening as she gave him a stern look.

Minato chuckled and shrugged, slipping his arm out from her grasp to wrap it around her waist as they walked, feeling the soft material of the red sash that she wore so magnificently around her waist. "I normally just sit in the back when I watch because of the way the ticket prices are here. That way, if I really get into a play or a certain group of performers then I'll know it'll be ten times better when I do decide to pay a little extra to sit up front. I've never sat on the balcony before though. Luckily for me, the owner really likes me, so I talked him down a bit in price."

Kushina blinked. "Wow. That is so unlike you…" she said, looking at him curiously. As she watched him she noticed he was starting to get a little nervous after she said that, to which she responded, "I like that."

He smiled, noticeably relaxing as they walked up the steps to their seats.

After leading his lady to her seat, he took his next to her and smiled softly at her, mouthing a silent _thank you_ as the music began. She blushed and tried to focus on the play as the curtains drew, but her eyes darted back and forth as the introduction began.

"Love brought them together; betrayal cast them asunder, drowning them within the nauseous belly of fire that is greed. Their love for one another knew no bounds, but even the unbreakable decays, and the infallible is often based on lies.

"As the spider spins its web, so too does destiny spin the webs that ensnare us; our lives, a mere moment in time, are rarely paid to us in full. Is it destiny that drove these two lovers apart? Or spite, anger, lust, jealousy, greed? Or was it love…

"… and so, as our story begins, so too does the butterfly flap its wings, unwittingly flying into the trap set by the spider, long before its journey has even begun."

* * *

><p>Naruto looked down into the fiery hell below. As he weighed his options, he felt the unbearable heat gushing up at him in waves as the molten rock tumbled and churned about within the cauldron before him.<p>

"So Namikaze, what will it be?"

"I'm thinking."

"You're hesitating."

"I **don't **hesitate. Just wait."

No one else stood on the peak of the volcano with Naruto. He stood there on his own, talking into empty space as he tried to decide whether or not to jump.

* * *

><p>"Inotsuyoi, you made me out to be a fool. A wretched fool: just when I thought this lie of yours would finally… <em>finally<em> came to an end… you do this to me. My heart aches, Inotsuyoi; it aches, it screams, it cries, it dies for you, most of all, and not out of love, yet despair… Oh! Despair! Despair, such a familiar face to those who seek a chance in love and find that it is nothing more than a treacherous, leering mistress! The likes of which even luck, the worst of them all, could hardly fathom! One which takes your honesty and turns it into falsehood, that which makes your joys insufferable, and your passions… bleak.

"Inotsuyoi, you denied me your heart, which you have covered with this glass. Why? Why so many mirrors? Why reflect without reflecting? Why is it that you want to see what you look like on the outside when looking inwards to see your true self only requires that you close your eyes?"

The tall, beautiful Yamanaka played by an up and coming young actress looked on at the man claiming that she had forsaken him, her eyes gazing on heatedly as the very tension in the room was easily apparent. She wore a tailed dress with long heels and her hair pulled back into an intricately braided tail. All around the room were mirrors, covering the walls and the ceilings, and even the stage floor was so well cleaned and polished that one could even see the reflection of the actors as they moved about.

At this point, Inotsuyoi's lover, a wealthy fire lord, just caught Inotsuyoi with another man; worse yet, it was a common rogue, a man which she could have easily fended off and yet she hadn't. Instead, she welcomed the man over and over again to the fire lord's home and made love to him on their bed.

It wasn't the first time he caught her; no, this was the third. He had already forgiven her twice, and still she continued to be unfaithful.

Biting her lip, Kushina gripped Minato's hand firmly as Inotsuyoi began to speak. "You forget that the reason why I am famous is because of these mirrors; without them I would be just another Yamanaka." She took a step forwards, "You ask me why I reflect without reflecting? Why do I worry about my outer appearance rather than my inner appearance? You wouldn't love me the same if I was unattractive. If I ceased to care about my looks for even a moment, you would have one of the many other ready and willing succubi to pick from; those women are like fungus and mold, growing on the garbage left out on the very street which your politics have you tread."

"There never was, there is and there never will be anything between me and any of the servants. I have been completely faithful to you: only you."

Inotsuyoi walked up to him and slapped him on the face before shoving several letters into his arms. Obvious guilt and some anger at getting caught reached his face. "Where did you get these?"

"So you do not deny that these were written to you? I read all of them."

He looked up at her cautiously after shuffling through some of the letters.

"They all explain in quite vivid detail how each and every tryst was carried out. I couldn't believe it when I first read it… but with all of that time you spend away from home, it became quite obvious to me how likely this was… you really have been seeing other women behind my back, there are no doubts in my mind!"

"I can't believe…" he looked back at the letters and back at her, "… how could you believe these are real? They're so… obviously indiscrete. Do you think, even if I was cheating on you, that I would allow this type of evidence against me to exist? Have you learned nothing from seeing my work?"

"And now you mock my intelligence? You heartless bastard," she said with a snarl as her upper lip curled.

"I don't question your intelligence; I question my own understanding of the situation. It's my understanding that you couldn't have possibly been so vacant in your observations that you did not take with you an idea of my character in my dealings with other countries and the negotiations made therein. If what you're saying is true, and I have been unfaithful, would I not have been much more eloquent in the way which I proceeded to carry out my affair? Could you not at least grant me that much? This… this accusation, it insults me."

"I wondered about that," she said, her eyes narrowing. "But during many of these _vacant_ observations of mine, I've noted quite often that you seem to have an uncontrollable sense of arrogance in your dealings. You have repeatedly gloated during these negotiations with other parties and even countries and you get some kind of thrill from it! Oh! What better thrill than to lie to your own lover and fiancé about an affair! Lying to someone you hardly know is exciting enough, but to deceive someone you love and whom loves no one other than you? Ecstasy, by which other name would you call yourself? "

They both stared each other down, glaring heatedly at one another as the curtains closed.

The scene changed, and Kushina looked at Minato with a pout on her face as she wiped a tear away from her eye. "They loved each other so much in the beginning! What happened?"

Minato, surprised by her loud voice, looked around to a few of the other people on the balcony and smiled awkwardly before saying, "Sh-sh-sh. Not so loud, Kushina." He smirked when she crossed her arms and he leaned in close, whispering, "Was the beginning your favorite part?"

"Yes," she mumbled, frowning as they sat together in the dark.

"The first time they met? Their first night together? The fire lord finding out that the legendary Yamanaka Inotsuyoi was a peasant who could barely afford to find a place to live and care for her dying mother? Which was your favorite?"

Kushina blushed and muttered something. Minato's brow crinkled because he couldn't quite frown.

"What was that?" he asked.

"I said… their first night together. They really loved each other before then, and long after that they were a good couple until the first time he caught her cheating."

"Do you think those letters are real or fake?"

Kushina furrowed her brow, leaning into his shoulder. "What makes a man cheat on a woman? Or, I mean, what makes a person have an affair? Man or woman?"

The look on Minato's face showed he was thinking very carefully before answering her question. He first thought that perhaps it was a question best left unanswered, because of its implications that could be put into their own relationship, but in the end he decided to anyways. "I guess there are a lot of things that could cause someone to stray away from the person they love the most. I don't know anything first or second hand to relate to it, really, but that was actually one of the main reasons why I liked the story so much."

"Because of the affair?"

"No, because of what the affair symbolized between them."

Kushina looked at him for quite some time before pulling back slightly, listening intently for his next words. "What was that?"

"Well, it symbolized their love."

Her jaw dropped. "Minato, an affair can't possibly symbolize love. It's the complete opposite! You have an affair to hurt someone's feelings because you feel they've wronged you or something. You don't do it because you love them!"

Minato chuckled, shaking his head as he simply decided to refrain from asking her to quiet down. The play was in intermission anyways. "I'm not saying that the reasons why they had the affair had anything to do with their love for one another… but, remember that she slept with someone who was trying to break into their home, purposefully. She had just found the letters and was grief stricken. So she decides that, because she loved him so much and he broke that bond of love between them by having a mistress, she was going to do the same thing to try and chip away at his own heart. It was the 'eye for an eye' deal."

"But how does that symbolize their love?"

"Well, what is an affair?"

"When… someone cheats on another person that they love and are in a relationship with?"

"Yes, and it is done in…"

"… secret?"

"Right, normally. And so, is it a lie?"

"Well, yes, I suppose. The person doing the cheating is lying about his love for the person affected by the tryst."

"And so their love, symbolized by an affair, would be…"

"… a lie."

"Now, the only thing to figure out now is, when did it become a lie? Truth can turn into lies, and lies into truth, so then when did their love become a sham? The first day they met? When they first fell in love? When?"

"Does it matter?"

Minato thought about it for a moment before saying, "Isn't it the same for any other kind of betrayal? Wouldn't you rather know whether or not your friend was really your friend before he decided to stick the knife in? Or that since the very beginning he was only manipulating you? Which do you think is worse?"

Kushina sighed, mauling over the question in her head before answering.

Minato looked into her eyes and noticed a blush appearing on her face as he grew nearer.

"You're so close…"

"Am I?" he asked.

"What do you think? Do you think it would've been better to find out that ever since we first met I was just using you? Or do you think you could be content that I truly loved you in the beginning and it was something that you did later on that would cause me to stop loving you?"

"Kushina," he whispered, "I couldn't live with either one… because either way, in the end, I would lose you."

They stared into each other's eyes for a moment and were about to kiss when they heard a sharp chuckle coming from behind them in another seat on the balcony.

When they both turned around, a man asked them, with a smirk on his face, "Perhaps _he's_ the one who's been using you from the very beginning."

"Ah, Homura Mitokado-san? Hello, sir." Minato stood up and bowed respectfully. Kushina arched a brow at the council member and waved politely. "I wasn't aware you were interested in theatre."

"Quite. Well, this play is all about an interesting person. She was one of the few people who could contend with an Uchiha back then. She was the Yamanaka equivalent of a Senju."

"And this only covers a small portion of her life; there is so much more, like the Uchiha who tried to force her to marry him when she was younger. Or the story of the glass fan which she made as a tribute to a loved one."

Kushina looked at Minato warily as he spoke, noticing how easily he switched on the politics. He began talking with the council member and their conversation encompassed the entire intermission. Kushina kept quiet and listened as she looked down towards the stage. After several minutes, the curtains opened and another set replaced the home of the Yamanaka and her Fire Lord.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe it ended like that. It was so sad."<p>

Minato nodded, "Yeah…"

When the play finally ended, Kushina and Minato stopped by the main road to enjoy the Kanto Matsuri. When they arrived, Minato began padding each of his pockets as he searched for his wallet.

"Uh, hang on a minute Kushina. I think I dropped my wallet somewhere."

Kushina turned back to look at him and arched a brow. He had it when they were at the theatre. He took out the little frog wallet that she bought for him a few weeks ago to retrieve the tickets for the play.

"Do you think you left it on your seat?"

"Probably… I should go back and check for it. I don't want you to have to walk all of the way back over there with me, but you can if you want to?"

"I'll go see if I can spot Mikoto-chan. She told me she would be taking care of one of the booths at the festival."

"Ok!" Minato agreed. The smile that reached his eyes was contagious, and soon Kushina felt herself smiling just as much as he was. "I'll be right back. Don't find another date on the way over there!"

Kushina frowned. He didn't see it. He was too busy running off to grab his wallet.

_Does he think that I'll betray him?_ Kushina shook her head as she tried to ignore a bad feeling she was starting to have about him.

"Jeez. I guess all men are just inherently asses." Her cheeks puffed out slightly as she sighed, grumbling.

Just then, a voice that made her spine crawl forced her to slowly crank her neck and shoulders to one side to look behind her. It wasn't the first time she had heard his voice, but she honestly had hoped the last time had stayed the last. "You're quite right about that, young one. All men are fools, and fools are all men."

Kushina chuckled uneasily, "So what would that make you, Orochimaru-sama?"

His grin widened, as if she stepped right into his trap. "A fool with foolish ideals."

She laughed. "I don't think you and I are too different in that respect, then."

Orochimaru arched a brow, "Oh? So you too wish to understand _everything_? How interesting, Kushina-chan."

"So what brings you here?"

"Ah, well, besides a nice diversion with this festival, to be able to catch a glimpse of lovely young women such as yourself; you are a master of garnering attention to yourself, Kushina. If I were a few decades younger, I just might fight tooth and nail against Minato-kun for a chance with you. You are quite beautiful."

"Thank you, Orochimaru-sama."

"Please, just Orochimaru would be fine. Now, what was it exactly that caused you to excavate that colorful language earlier? Are you and the blond lightning bolt having a little spat?"

Kushina frowned, not sure she wanted to talk with Orochimaru about her relationship issues. She did ask herself just who she would talk to, because, as much of a friend Mikoto was, she had a terrible sense of how a relationship was supposed to be; just the fact that she was engaged so young to Uchiha Fugaku, a total jerk, cemented Mikoto's status as a terrible choice in men for her.

"Well… not really. We just saw a good play," she said.

His mere smile interrupted her. He knew the play! "The one of Yamanaka Inotsuyoi," he offered.

"Yes, that's the one. How did you know?"

"I've seen it. It was nice enough; a quite _creative _dramatization of what actually occurred."

Kushina nodded. "I wondered about that… but anyways, Minato kind of told me… not to find another date on the way to the festival… I know it was a joke, but… it's kind of like, he already can't trust me… Nevermind, I'm only being silly."

Orochimaru nodded as he listened to her patiently. Once he was sure she said all that which she had to say, he took a step forward and said, "I understand your concern. I refract upon my previous statement about men. _Most _men are fools. Obviously, Minato is hardly foolish to be concerned about losing you."

Kushina furrowed her brows. "What do you mean?"

"You are still young, and I remember sensei talking about Minato and your relationship before, and how the two of you getting along together as friends made for two much better individuals. It was as if fate had put the two of you together to ensure that you would both grow to be the gems that you are today. He, a phenomenon in the shinobi world with nearly no equal," he winked then with a bit of a smirk gracing his lips at his implication, "and a powerful kunoichi in her own right, one charged with a heavy, heavy task that makes you one in a million."

Kushina glanced at the legend before her with modesty. She felt humbled by his choice of words and the way he spoke so nicely to her. She had never heard him speak this way before.

"No one else in our generation could keep the Kyubi contained like you could. You are a godsend for a village, and above that, a beautiful young woman who just happens to be slightly insecure about herself due to a rough upbringing… Kushina, do not let what Minato said hurt you, it wasn't simply stated as a joke, but as a spoken wish, not necessarily to you but to perhaps Kami-sama himself that he would not lose you to another. Plays like those can invoke emotions. And it is my assumption that Minato-kun was partial to the play in the first place, which is the reason why he took you, isn't it?"

She nodded with a smile slowly growing on her face. "Yes, yes it was. He told me that he had been waiting for a long time to take me to that play… ever since… well, for a long while."

Orochimaru smiled. "Now, off you go to have fun and enjoy this festival… before I decide I'm not too old to try and incite your doubts, Miss Uzumaki."

Kushina walked up to the older man and hugged him, much to his surprise. Orochimaru watched her leave and smirked, his golden eyes following the young redhead all of the way to the Uchiha woman's booth before he walked along, avoiding the festival altogether.

When Minato came back and saw Kushina talking with Mikoto, he said hello to his date's friend and smiled at the beautiful redhead, beginning to say that he found his wallet only to nearly jump out of his sandals when he saw the look in her eyes when she turned to look back at him. They took each other's hand and the couple spent the rest of the evening watching the talented performers of the festival balance paper lanterns on ten, twenty and thirty meters long bamboo sticks in the middle of the crowded streets.

That night, the two young lovers shared their first times together; friends who had known each other for years and silently, deeply loved one another, but could never confidently express their love until then.

* * *

><p>"Naruto, what are you doing here?" Ino asked, surprised to see Naruto at her door since he said he would go to Mount Krakatoa the day after meeting with young Minato, the fire daimyo's nephew.<p>

"I was thinking and realized that… even though this is important for me to meet head on… it's not nearly as important as you are to me. If I was going to die tomorrow, I'd much rather spend my last day with you than to go off trying to get revenge."

"Naruto… I… that…" Ino was at a loss for words. She looked and saw something in his eyes that was never there before: vulnerability. It made her heart beat rampantly in her chest knowing that he ate up his pride in order to come back to her and admit to her how much he needed her.

"We've never gone out on a date, and I was hoping you would go out with me tomorrow before I leave?"

Ino whispered a shocked _yes_.

* * *

><p>Author's notes, change of name:<p>

Update: 9/5/12

*No real changes, just added one of the line-blocks to help make the chapter easier to read.

I have changed my pen name to Killer Intent, the reason why is because that was my previous account and I liked that name better than Mos Ad Interficio which basically means about the same thing. I hope it's easier to remember for all of you in case that was ever a problem when trying to find my story, and I hope that you can all forgive me for the very long wait. I just moved to my new apartment near the college that I am now attending and I have been getting used to the way things work around here and busy being a bee in this field of flowers. I'm in a larger city, so it's a little different from the small "city" that I used to live in. I love it though and I plan on updating a little more often.

Just to let you know, the scene with Naruto in between the play is a **glimpse** of what is **going to happen**. Naruto and Ino are **not** aware of Minato (his father) and his time spent with Kushina. Naruto barely knows anything about his father. The Minato mentioned at the end was the daimyo's nephew, who I will refer to likely as little Minato or young Minato whenever he is mentioned.

This chapter was just a chance to give the readers insight into what Naruto's father and mother was like and to show how similar or dissimilar Naruto and Ino's lives are with those of his parents. You be the judge.

One last thing, in this story, as a reminder, Naruto is a year older than everyone else, making him in Neji/Tenten/Lee's bracket year rather than Sasuke's year. This means that Mikoto will not become pregnant for another year after this festival, whereas Kushina becomes pregnant on the night of the Kanto Matsuri. It's a real festival, look it up for fun.

Anyways, that's enough explaining. If you fall off the wagon from now on, you'll just have to wait patiently for me to explain previous chapters. There are a lot of loose ends in this story, but eventually they will all come back to one point (or I'll make as many as I possibly can do that).

Thank you guys for your reviews, and what the heck does "Supert History" mean? lmao


	23. Chapter 23

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

Chapter 23

* * *

><p>Yamanaka Ino smiled, closing the door after Naruto agreed to meet her in the shopping district in a few hours for their date at three o'clock. She ran quickly to her bed in the room she shared with her father and started looking for the clothes she had packed away for their trip back home the following day.<p>

Her hands rifled through her bag, tossing different articles of clothing out of it onto the bed behind her as she frantically searched for _it_. _It _was an outfit that she bought only recently after saving up from the past three C rank missions that she took. She found it thanks to Sakura who recommended it for her, though initially she was not very interested because she thought she'd never be the type of person to wear any kind of animal skin. It wasn't until she tried it on that she fell deeply and impossibly in love.

"Where is it?! Didn't I pack it here? Jeez, it's not like I bought this thing just to hide it away. I bet if Naruto saw me in it he'd give up going to the volcano altogether." She grinned with a blush painting her cheeks.

Her hands hit something inside of her bag and Ino froze in place. She forgot _all_ about _that_.

Ino took out the item from her bag and held it before her. She observed the scroll in her hands, turning it about so that she could grab onto the one end and open it.

As soon as the paper scroll rolled out before her on the floor, Ino's eyes flashed and the room she was in vanished around her. In its place appeared a dimly lit tunnel that was lit up by blue amber colored candles on either side of the walls. There was a dank feeling to the area and in the background she could hear a low whistling sound passing through like wind through a cave. With an air of familiarity, Ino strode down the winding tunnel past a mantel with over a hundred of the glass-like candles.

When she finally reached the end, the sound of the wind died away and now clearly she could hear a ringing sound in its place. She wasn't sure what it was still, but it was always around no matter how long she stayed in Inotsuyoi's realm.

_The fan, is it safe?_

"Yes, it's on my person right now. Did you hear what he said?"

_Quite. He seems quite taken by you. Does that make you happy?_

"Yes!" Ino exclaimed, sighing as she brought her hands together in front of her chest, her eyes closing shut. "I have waited so long to see him… I guess all that time away, it made me feel closer to him. Strange, isn't it?"

_I find it amusing that your overactive imagination painted such a pretty picture of this young boy for you. He seems… adequate for a normal girl, but so far beneath you._

Ino opened her eyes and frowned, hurt that she would say anything bad about the boy that she liked. "Hey, what's wrong with him?"

_I am only expressing my opinion. He strikes me as the type of young man who is brash and thinks more with his groin than with his head. Other than those whisker marks on his cheeks, he's not very interesting to me._

Ino gasped, "Yeah, those whiskers are really cute… listen, I appreciate what you're saying, but he's perfect for me… I mean… after everything we've been through…"

_People survive natural disasters everyday together and you hardly see any of them falling in love over being alive. I think that you are making him out to be more than what he is… or perhaps, even if he is a catch, you are falling in love with him because you think it's the right thing to do. After all, he gladly casted away his life and livelihood for you without even batting an eye. Loving him seems like your way of compensating his good deed, which is not the reason one should fall in love._

"Inotsuyoi…" Ino sat down on her knees before the web-covered hole before her. She heard the voice as always, muting the ring that sounded in her ear constantly and it was muted only when she heard Inotsuyoi _speaking_ to her. Somehow, it was going directly into her head. Ino didn't even need to move her lips to communicate back, but it made her feel more comfortable that way.

_I loved a man once. For similar reasons._

"Really? What was he like?"

_Hm… I can't seem to remember any of his redeeming qualities. I suppose he was a generally good person. He took me in when I had nowhere else to go. He was a very powerful man, and I was attracted to that power. I loved him… I can't remember how we met… how peculiar._

"You've been here for so long." Ino offered sympathetically.

Suddenly, Inotsuyoi's voice exploded in Ino's head, making the girl yelp as she brought her hands reflexively to her ears though covering them didn't lower the volume of the woman's voice at all.

_Don't you __**think**__ I already __**know that**__?! _There was a brief pause and then Inotsuyoi said, _Never speak to me in such a manner again, __**do you understand**__? _

The sound that reverberated in Ino's head had her hunched over. Because it was in her head, there was no echo within the cave. Just silence. "Forgive me, forgive me lady Inotsuyoi, I'm sorry!" Ino said, shaking like a leaf where she stood.

Silence rang louder than any other sound in the cave. It was daunting, and Ino's lower lip quivered as the frightening voice of the Yamanaka deity faded and the ringing returned.

Finally, after a long period of silence, Inotsuyoi sighed and said: _I killed him._

"What?" Ino asked, taken aback.

_He forced my hand; I couldn't lose him to someone else, so I had to kill him… to be certain that he would be mine, forever._

Ino bit her lip. _'Is she joking?_' Ino asked herself. _'Why would she?'_

_I didn't want to, but he forced my hand._

Inotsuyoi continued to mumble her last few words over and over as if she had been caught in a trance. Ino wasn't sure what was wrong with what she believed to be the spirit of her ancestor, but she did come here for a reason.

"Lady Inotsuyoi. The reason why I came here…"

_Mm… you've come a long way, haven't you?_

"Yes… whenever you are ready, Lady Inotsuyoi."

_Come closer._

Ino looked at the hole in the ground at the end of the tunnel and gulped. It looked like a giant spider-trap that tarantulas made. Ino knew what was coming. She knelt down on the ground and began to crawl over to the nest. When her fingers touched the ends of the spider net that was cast on the ground a sinewy arm shot out of the hole and extended out towards her, making Ino jump in shock though she knew it was going to happen.

The hand that reached out to Ino opened up and in its grasp was thousands of tiny spiderlings barely the size of a pinhead crawling out of a cocoon that was buried literally within Inotsuyoi's palm. The spiderlings began to climb up on top of and in between the deity's fingers. They were translucent, numerous, and violent; their small fangs pierced the hand repeatedly though they themselves were so very young.

_Now, now, my darlings… As you now well know, my cocoons contain tens of thousands more children than regular spiders, and they are all quite eager. They're all yours, Ino._

Ino sat up on her knees and looked at the hand as it was held out in front of her. She parted her lips, looking at all of the tiny tarantulas as they flitted about the flesh of Inotsuyoi's hand. Opening wide, Ino took each digit into her mouth, sucking the small, translucent spiders into her mouth and swallowing them down into her stomach; she could feel them crawling around, nibbling on the insides of her esophagus as they went down to the pouch that held her food. Ino gasped when one in particular got a grip of the back of her tongue, and she swallowed hard and shook her head to try and free its grasp. Ino finished licking away every last one off of the woman's hand, even going so far as to peek into the cocoon embedded in her hand to be sure that none were left behind. When she was finished, Ino closed her eyes and sat quietly as she tried to feel the way they were moving about inside of her.

_You look satisfied, Ino. It seems you've gotten over your initial hesitation from when we first began. I am so proud of you._

Ino bowed low, tears rolling down her cheeks as she whispered, "Thank you. Thank you, Lady Inotsuyoi."

Her belly became a pit of fiery anger, pain coursed through the beautiful young woman so deeply that when she woke up, she realized that she had passed out on top of her bag. Ino reached into the bag once again, placed the scroll away, and pulled out a purple and black outfit which was packed way in the bottom with hesitation and nervousness absent from her now stoic demeanor.

* * *

><p>"Naruto, I can't believe you're going to go through with this." Tayuya said, angry with herself for letting him go on his own with the bothersome blonde woman. She looked at Anko who looked surprisingly upset as well; though she bit her tongue to keep from saying whatever it was that was on her mind.<p>

"What's there not to believe? This boy has been known to call out the misfortune of others through his dreams. I think that there's something important in this that will get me one step closer to annihilating the Sannin."

"How will you do that if you're dead, though? He said that you died at the volcano, right? So, just stay away from it and you can't die!"

Naruto frowned. "I think the opposite is true. If I run from this then something will find me and bring me to the volcano where I will die a groveling coward. I am no coward, Tayuya."

"You're a fool, but not a coward." Anko finally said with a scowl apparent on her face.

"Maybe, but a fool with a plan."

Tayuya laughed. "_A fool with a plan_. Yeah, you're really convincing us that this is a good idea."

Naruto frowned. "I'm not trying to convince either of you anything. If you don't have any faith in me then that's fine: I don't need your help for this."

Both Anko and Tayuya looked at one another and then stormed out of the room. Just before Anko could leave, however, Naruto ran up to the door and grabbed her hand, saying "Wait, Anko. Let me ask you something… Actually, please just hear me out."

Anko rolled her eyes and turned to look back at him, sighing exasperatedly once she decided to listen. "Ok, you've got my ear. What's up?"

"I do have a plan, ok, but that's beside the point. All I know is that this is all a little too fishy."

Anko frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it: a boy who just _happens_ to be named Minato is claiming to have seen my death. **Minato**, just like my father! He just happens to be some kind of psychic who knows when people will die _before_ they die, and _how_ they will die. And it just so happens, that out of all of the people in Kumamoto, I am chosen as number thirty-three… the number is insignificant, but I'm just saying, why me? This was the first time I've visited the city! The last part about it is that this is all happening to someone close to the daimyo; which makes me wonder just how real his ability is and whether or not someone is pulling the strings to make these phenomenon happen."

Anko uncrossed her arms and closed the door, stepping back into the room and nodding. "I'm interested."

"So… we are pretty sure from your experience that his is Orochimaru's city. Somehow he has a hand in the going ins and outs of the place, but not to the extent that it would be blatantly obvious, which is why we haven't been able to spot any clues lately."

Anko nodded slowly, wondering where he was getting at.

"I haven't done my research on it yet, and I don't think I'll be able to so I need you and Tayuya to follow up on it for me. I'll ask Ino to try to if she can before she leaves the city back for Konoha."

"What research? And we're not going with you to the mountain?" she asked.

Naruto's body tensed, "Absolutely not. I don't know what will happen… the daimyo is there, I may become imprisoned if I try and get him to leave… I might die… Orochimaru might be there waiting for me for all I know."

Anko shook her head, "There's no way that… that he could figure you would come here to the capitol searching for him."

"Probably not… but I wouldn't put it past him. Not just that, but I have a feeling that the reason why I left Mizu was because he planted Tayuya. Maybe he thought that if he presented me with some sort of leverage I would try to use it and since she was going to be killed… regardless of what I told the Mizukage… well, the only way to save her would be to sneak her out of Mizu and become a missing-nin there."

"Naruto… what you're saying is crazy." Anko muttered, but she didn't dare doubt it. Orochimaru, the Snake Sannin, was definitely capable of something so clever. It was so like him to use a person's desire for revenge against them in order to manipulate them. To think that their comrade was an unwitting accomplice to the snake made Anko feel queasy in her stomach. "But I think you might just have a point: the boy's dreams may be some sort of political scheme he's using to get rid of anybody who opposes him without drawing attention to himself. Heck, if anything, it makes the daimyo look suspicious."

He nodded. "It's hard to believe that he would expect me to be able to pull off that jailbreak like I did on my own… I wonder how much influence he had on you being here."

Anko's eyes began to narrow. "Do you think I'm some kind of traitor?"

"Absolutely not. Anko, I'd never have been able to do **any** of this without you. I would've died several times by now if it weren't for you and your cunning and capable mind. Not to mention the things you've had to do for me that weren't always the most honorable jobs…" Naruto began to look down to the floor but Anko slapped him, knocking him into a stupor.

"Listen, you little fucker. If I did something for you, to help you, or to bring about one of your goals, it was all a choice that I made with a clear mind! Sure, I may have done a little knob polishing on the bastard with the eye-patch, but don't think for a minute that everything I've done up until now hasn't been done only for my own selfish reasons!"

Naruto was taken aback by her crude words, but he looked into her brown eyes and they burned with fire. She was not messing around.

"You may just want to kill Orochimaru and that's fine; I might just let you do that when the time comes. But me? I am going to chop off his _snake_ and feed the fucking thing to him… _then_ and _only then_ can you kill him. Got it?" Anko said with finality, almost growling when she spoke.

He looked at her, dumbfounded at the strong way she spoke, but he then wrapped his arms around her tightly and held her as close as he could possibly do. "Anko…"

Anko smirked, "Don't you start getting all friendly with me now… I'm not too old that I won't take advantage of an available stud before there's a ring on his finger."

Naruto laughed, and Anko simply rolled her eyes, hugging him back fondly.

They ended the embrace and Anko turned around to leave when Naruto said, "Hold on. I have one other question. Do you know where's a good place to go out to eat?"

Anko arched a brow, "Oh, you've got a date, huh? Well, well… Tayuya will be thrilled."

Naruto frowned, "Do you know a place, or not?"

"Yeah, yeah… don't get your panties in a bunch."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "So what is it?"

Anko then proceeded to explain to him how to get to the restaurant that she and Tayuya had gone to previously. He thanked her, and she left.

* * *

><p>Naruto frowned and took a seat on the bed, grumbling as he tried to focus less on what was going to happen and more on the date he had with Ino in an hour.<p>

He closed his eyes and lied back on the bed, trying to relax and empty his mind.

* * *

><p>When the time came, Naruto was walking out of the hotel and made his way over to the very large shopping district of Kumamoto City. He had seen a nice shop when walking through the area, in search of some clue as to where Orochimaru's influence could be found.<p>

The shop was called Hidden Blade, and its shopkeeper was a nice old lady who ran the store ever since her husband passed away. Naruto had begun to build a rapport with the woman on his way through the district, and so she agreed to sell him a particular item that had caught his attention for a little less than the price listed.

"Ah, Naruto-kun. How are you today?" said the shopkeeper when she noticed him walking up to the store as she was fixing an outside display of spiders.

"Wow, what's that?"

The woman looked at the containers which were specially made for housing large spiders. She grinned at him and said, "Well, I got a steal purchasing these beautiful tarantulas from a merchant just outside of the city in the small farmer's town at the base of the mountain. He said they weren't worth anything, since their bites cause paralysis, but I've sold exotic animals before and I know that to the right buyer these can fetch me quite a fortune."

Naruto stroked his chin as he leaned over; looking through the glass as the largest tarantula within the containers scurried about, heading back into its hole after being spotted. "Paralysis?" he asked. "They're definitely exotic… and shy."

"Oh no, not often, at least never with me. They must like you!" said the old lady, laughing unguardedly in front of him.

"Or dislike me… Anyways, I am doing well, Kyoto-san, thank you for asking. I am here for the obsidian blade. Do you have it ready for me now?"

"Ah yes, come in, my boy! Come in!" said the older woman, excitedly.

Naruto walked in behind her, surprised still at all of the merchandise hanging from the ceiling, on the walls and on aisles that snaked back and forth to make the most out of the small shop that she owned.

"You really have an amazing place here, Kyoto-san."

"Please, boy! There's nothing but old junk in here. I'm amazing; without me, none of this would ever look pretty enough to sell!" She laughed again, and this time it was infectious and Naruto chuckled as well.

"I see. So is the knife I seek to buy junk as well?"

"It is nothing of the sort. In fact, it was the one item in the store that didn't need much of my loving elbow grease!" She smirked. "So, the retractable knife… you said you already have the forearm guard?"

Naruto nodded. "Yes, it only needs a wrist cuff and a nice cloth for fitting."

Kyoto smiled, "So I take it that this knife isn't for you?"

"No," he said, "I am getting it as a gift."

"I see… man or woman?"

"Woman. Does it matter?"

"Indeed it does, young man! I will gather the right cloth, and I will also clean and oil the mechanism once more. One cannot be too careful when purchasing something for a loved one that may indeed save their lives."

Naruto nodded, "Yes. I ask for nothing but the best for her."

Kyoto smiled and walked up to a door with an employee's only sign on it and entered the back storage room. After about twenty minutes, she came back out with a small black box; a fitting container for the obsidian blade that rested within.

"It's wonderful isn't it?" she asked, smiling knowingly.

Naruto nodded as he reached into the box and handled the blade and the forearm mechanism which retracted and extended the blade back and forth. "It's very nice… very sharp… the obsidian though, isn't it brittle?"

The woman frowned, "Do you think I would sell you something that could break so easily?! Boy, you better not question the authority I have on everything which I buy! There is not a better keeper of fine tools, trinkets and objects in the entire country! I have learned much from my husband, and the first thing I learned, because of this shinobi world, is how to spot a good blade out of the plethora of bad ones out there in this world!"

Naruto, surprised by her outburst, only smiled and nodded. "Alright… I get it, I get it. Well, I'll definitely give this to her. I don't think it's a real romantic gift, but it's my way of protecting her."

There was a grin on her face when she spoke, "Oh, I can bet that anything this specialized isn't just for _anyone _and _any _reason. This girl has some reason why she wears one arm guard."

Naruto furrowed his brows. "Why would you think she only has one?"

With a grin, Kyoto said, "Well, because, Naruto-kun! If she had two guards you would be getting her two retractable blades! It's not like you didn't notice all of the others that I have in stock there where you saw this one."

Naruto laughed, nodding at her insightfulness. "You are something extraordinary, Kyoto-san… so how does this thing work?"

She smirked, "Simple, you just tie this bad boy on," she did, "and then you flick your wrist like so, and there you go! One six-inch obsidian blade framed with the same steel alloy used to make those kunai knives you ninja like so much."

Naruto nodded, watching as the mechanism worked and shot the blade outwards so that it extended past the woman's open palm. It was perfect.

"I am still a little scared about the obsidian… do you have a replacement blade?"

Kyoto frowned, "Jeez. You just won't let up, will ya? Fine, fine. Yes, I do, but it's not obsidian. It's the same steel alloy I was talking about. Hold on, let me go get it. I'll even throw it in for free just to prove how pointless it'll be! The obsidian, I promise, will not break until the day it is done doing its job!"

"Until… the day it is done doing its job?" he asked to himself, watching the woman walk away.

When she came back with the blade, Naruto paid the woman and she wrapped the gift in a beautiful cloth wrap with an intricate bow tied expertly onto the top. Kyoto then handed him the gift with a smile and said, "Listen you, don't you dare forget about old Kyoto here! Tell me how it goes with you and the girl so that I know I've somehow helped bring a smile to her face. I hope this girl is very important to you for you to spend so much money!"

Naruto smiled, "Well, the amount of money I spend doesn't have anything to do with how important she is to me. If it did, I'd be insulting her by spending so little. I only hope that this helps protect her while I go away for a while."

"Ha ha! Well, is that so? You have a way with words, Naruto-kun. Listen, come back whenever to buy her more gifts then! I'd be happy to take a little of that money off of your hands, or to listen to that kind voice, whenever!"

They shared a laugh, said their goodbyes, and Naruto left with the gift in hand to meet with Ino at the center of the shopping district.

* * *

><p>When he arrived, he found that Ino was already waiting for him. He smiled at her, the slim, rectangular box hidden away in his inside jacket pocket. When their eyes met, he noticed that she had pulled all of her hair back into a braided ponytail with a few loose tufts hanging over the side of her face. She wore only some lip gloss, from what he could tell, and her eyes were as dark and long-lashed as ever. When his eyes wandered, he noticed she was wearing her usual purple today, but was surprised at the shoulder-bearing halter top that draped loosely down her slender frame and skirted over her lovely hips. He bit his lips when he saw the leather pants she was wearing. They were black, not too shiny, but just enough to show off the curves of her hips and not too tight or elastic looking.<p>

"Oh Kami-sama… Ino, you look…"

Ino smiled, "You look good too, Naruto." She reached out and hugged him. He grinned and pinched her butt, eliciting a gasp from the beautiful blonde before she smacked him lightly on the cheek. "Watch it buster!"

"I don't think this date will last very long… Who's up for heading back to the hotel? I'm all for it."

Ino laughed, shaking her head. "Quit being such a weirdo… thanks, I like that you like it."

"More like love it; It would almost be a shame to take it off of you if I didn't already know how much sexier you look without any-"

Ino, blushing, covered his mouth as soon as she realized where that conversation was heading and squealed out an embarrassed, "Shut up!"

They kissed once she let go of his face and he smiled at her, whispering, "So, are you ready to go on our date?"

"So ready," she said. Ino then grabbed his arm and whispered into his ear, nibbling on his lobe before doing so, "I wasn't kidding. You look amazing too. I didn't know you got a new jacket… it looks nice."

"Ah, yeah, a friend of mine in Mizu gave it to me as a gift. It's a Mizu-style swordsman's jacket. You can tell because of the long collar and the straight lines."

Ino smiled, "And this trim."

Naruto blinked, "Huh? What about it?"

Naruto looked at his jacket while Ino played with his collar. "The trim on the jacket is a whitish-blue camouflage while the rest of it is a solid grayish blue; whoever gave it to you was definitely from Mizu."

He smiled and then she did as well. "Alright, let's go."

"Where are we going?"

"Well, I was hoping there would be a festival somewhere around here today, but I checked all around town. It seems like today's going to be a dinner date."

"Ah, so where are we going?"

"Well, first I thought we'd-"

Suddenly, Ino, while looking around the shopping center they were standing in, noticed her father walking up to them. Tailing him was a man with a face shield that covered his forehead and framed his face. He had eyes with rings around them from what seemed to be a lack of sleep, and short dark hair.

"Daddy?" Ino asked, turning to face the two adults as they reached the couple.

"Yes, pumpkin… listen, we have to go. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to cut your date with… with uh… your friend, short."

"What?! But, why?" she asked, nervously looking back and forth at her father and Naruto. Why was he omitting his name?

Naruto looked like he just got jabbed in the chest, but he swallowed down his bitterness towards the man and listened to the small voice of reason that said maybe there was something important going on back home that she was needed for.

"I'll give you a minute to say your goodbyes, but then we must leave, Ino."

"Thirty seconds. We are in a hurry," said the man standing beside Inoichi.

"Fine, fine… just hold on. Come here," she said to Naruto, making sure not to give up his name either just in case there was some sort of problem with the man who came to retrieve them from Konoha.

When they were far enough away, Ino hugged Naruto tightly and kissed him with everything she had. Naruto returned the kiss and chuckled when they pulled away.

"What're you laughing at?" Ino asked inquisitively.

He shrugged, "Well, had I known earlier that you were going to have to go home, I would've grabbed you and taken you into your hotel room instead of leaving for these past few hours… I wish we had more time and I didn't have to just hand this over to you, but I need to know that you are safe, so… here:" he said, reaching into his jacket and pulling out the slim, rectangular box and handing it over to her. "This is a gift from me… I hope that you don't have to use it, but if you do, then I want to make sure that you have it."

"A gift?"

"Your time is up!" called out the dark-haired man while Inoichi just shushed him, telling him they could run if they needed to make up time.

"Yes. Go ahead, open it!" Naruto said, excitement reaching his voice.

She smiled with a faint blush on her cheeks and pulled apart the beautiful bow, gasping as its craftsmanship came undone so easily and the gorgeous bow that was sitting on top of it had become simply another piece of string. "The box is so pretty." She opened it and tilted the box to peer inside.

"Do you like it?"

"What is it?"

Naruto grinned, "It's a concealed blade. Here, hand it over to me." He took the blade when she gave it to him and he then attached the cloth, tied it once around her wrist, folded it over and tied it again, and then attached the cuff and finished by wrapping the small belts around her wrist that held it firmly.

"That's pretty complicated," she said, looking at the strange contraption.

He grinned and then pulled her bracer up a bit so that it was flush with the mechanism and knife, hiding it. "I don't know if the obsidian knife is very strong… I mean, it can cut real good, but it can break pretty easily, I think… the owner said it wouldn't, but I don't know. It just looks too much like rock candy mixed with glass to me."

Ino giggled, "You're so weird… so, it shoots out a knife?"

Naruto nodded extended his arm out so that she could see how to extend the knife. "Ok, all you have to do is flick your wrist this way," he then proceeded to show her, "and the mechanism will bring the knife up so that you can use it whenever!"

Ino flicked her wrist the way he showed her and was surprised when the deadly knife shot out about six inches past the flat of her palm. "This is incredible…" she looked up and flicked her wrist again, grinning. "I love you."

Naruto blushed. "Ino, I…"

"Miss Yamanaka! That's enough, let's move along! Inoichi, I will have no more of this."

Ino glared, but then turned to look at Naruto and kissed him on the lips.

"I'll write you, he said."

Ino's eyes widened. "Oh wait, I have something for you, too!"

She smiled and reached into her kunai pouch for a very thin scroll and handed it over to him. He looked at it curiously and smiled when he began to open it and she nodded.

"Ah, it's empty," he said.

"Yep! Keep it with you and check it every once in a while… I'll talk to you soon! Bye!"

Ino kissed him again and turned around quickly and ran towards her father and the love oppressive shinobi. Naruto took another look at the scroll and shrugged and placed it back in his kunai pouch before turning around and heading back to his hotel room.

He touched his lips and shook his head. His day with Ino was ruined, and he couldn't even bring himself to respond to something as simple as an 'I love you' when he knew that yes, he absolutely did love her, too.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note: <strong>I appreciate everyone who has read and reviewed and favorite and everything else! I'm a busy guy right now, but I am always writing. I also had to keep rewriting this because I was having a bit of a mental block on how to set it all up right. This chapter begins the trip to see Mount Krakatoa and the fighting tournament. I won't tell you whether or not Naruto will participate, but I can say that another male character that has been out of the spotlight for a bit definitely will.

I'm open to any ideas and suggestions about the story, but otherwise I'm slowly trying to mold it into my idea of what the grand scheme looks like.

Also, I either just fell in love tonight or this girl I met today left me with one hell of a first impression. I hope things continue to hit off well with her and I hope everyone finds their special someone someday.


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

* * *

><p><strong>Warning: (<strong>Mild**) **Mature Themes

* * *

><p>Several days ago, a group of ANBU wearing their original drab and animal masks stood behind a man wearing a faceplate with dark, short spiky hair and almond shaped jet black eyes. He descended onto one knee, looking down at the ground after walking into the ceremonial ANBU task-assigning room. It was built long ago, only a few years after the founding of ANBU, but long after the secret 'root' or 'Ne' group was formed. Using ANBU as a guise, root was allowed to be considered a "special-special forces unit" that acted under the sole purpose of defending the village and staying unseen by the populace and even by other ANBU branches and the masses of jonin, chunin and genin rank. They were not supervised by the Hokage or the council (as a whole); <em>Ne<em> was watched by a third party, a man of cunning and renown, yet was secretive and was only known as a great shinobi who had Konoha's best intentions at heart. Though he was part of the village council, Shimura Danzo ran root as its general, its leader, and tactician. By secretly selecting certain recruits from various ranks in Konoha, Danzo was able to set up an organized system of spies that were stealthier than even the best jonin, more dangerous than most grizzled war veterans, cold and incorruptible than even the best interrogators Konoha had to offer.

In fact, many of his recruits were brought in through the interrogation department. Though the Hokage didn't sanction Danzo's cruel methods, he used torture to bring out the worst, and the best, in any of the older recruits that were a part of root.

The very best, however, indeed the absolute best were only those few which were bred from childhood to be his soldiers, his shinobi: tools crafted from the purest, sturdiest materials. Children who were brought up to know no emotion, care for nothing, and carry themselves as if they were not even human, because as far as Danzo was concerned: they were not.

A shinobi, he believed, was one who detached him or herself from emotions and cared not for trifles such as vengeance, avarice, pride, or worse: love. A tool could not _love_ anything. A tool only had obligations. A tool only served its master, its creator, and there was no room in its lifespan for anything but. He felt that he was also serving this greater purpose himself, and that his aspirations were no more than goals that needed to be met in order to bring about the greater good. In no way, did Danzo ever believe that his methods, which oftentimes used the ends to justify the means, were anything but the best move he could possibly make for the village's security and prosperity. He believed…

"A tool only has obligations. A tool only serves its master, its creator, and there is no room for anything else. A tool does not love, it does not feel, it only cuts, lifts, reaches and builds. It kills if made for that purpose." The group of root members standing behind the man wearing the faceplate spoke quietly in unison a statement which was ingrained into their minds as either young adults or even as children: "It does not wield a blade; it is the blade wielded. Shinobi are tools. We are shinobi."

"Master, I kneel before you."

Danzo sat in the room behind a large desk with several scrolls and books sitting on the table. He currently had opened a log full of written accounts of different resources outside of the village. There was a special seal on each of the scrolls and books in the room that caused them to light aflame if anyone other than the commander of root, Danzo, opened them. Standing beside him at attention was a woman who behind her bat's mask scrutinized his guests carefully in search of any kind of genjutsu or other techniques which may have been in use to conceal their chakra or appearance. Looking up from his scroll and peering through his one eye which was covered by bandages, Danzo's one good eye slowly peered at his peripheral just before she said, "They're clear, master." He turned his eye back on his subject and nodded, speaking then in a deep voice as he sat back in his chair, setting the scroll down on the table before him.

"You will use your original codename for this mission. Tenzo, you are to bring back the Yamanakas who have gone to care for the Daimyo's nephew. Once there, however, you will find that the Namikaze is in their midst. My sources indicate that he is now a missing nin from Mizu and was last seen heading to the capitol in order to find a trail leading to the criminal sannin. Your previous mission statement notified you of his relationship with the Yamanaka girl, Ino. You will assassinate her and her father before returning to Konoha, making it seem as if the Namikaze was the one who committed the murder. You will be put under scrutiny and intensive interrogation, no doubt at the insistence of our Hokage, and your word will be that when you arrived, the young man and his accomplices attempted to kill you after he killed her father and before he made off with the young Yamanaka. You attempted a rescue, but he killed her and left the scene before you could get back onto his trail."

Danzo closed his eye and a shadowy figure came out from behind him in the darkness, wearing a mask like any of the other ANBU, but dressed completely in black and wearing a cloak. His voice sauntered off the tongue lazily, demurely almost. "That's an interesting statement to return to Konoha with… isn't Tenzo here _much_ stronger than any of the three shinobi that make up the Namikaze's party?"

The older man smirked and opened his eye, looking at the mask of the cloaked figure who currently leads the regular ANBU branch. "I suppose so… however, from what I hear, Naruto and a companion of his took out a rebel base in Mizu on their own and he was even supposedly at chunin level there. If one of his companions is one of the original sound four and the other the last known pupil of Orochimaru, then it wouldn't be hard to believe that they were able to escape from him, as Orochimaru is a splendid escape artist himself and undoubtedly educated his pupil and underling in his ways. The fact that Namikaze is the son of Minato, our deceased Fourth Hokage, also only lends to the idea that he must have grown exponentially over the years, especially in such as harsh place such as the Bloody Mist. There is also some word of his growing renown. He has been a part of quite a few dangerous missions during his stay there."

The ANBU captain cackled, his body heaving as he imagined the life that the poor young man had to lead in such a volatile place such as Mizu, when he easily could've stayed in Konoha and lived a much simpler life here. His Root counterpart ignored his laughter and simply looked back over to Tenzo.

"You are dismissed. Failure means that you shall be disposed. If you fail during the interrogation or at any time before and after the mission and attempt to relay even the most minuscule bit of information regarding this briefing, then the seal on your tongue will immediately trigger your demise." With the seal set during their initiations, it is no wonder that the war veteran could speak of such an openly treasonous affair without worry of tongue slips and repercussions.

"Understood. Master, I am your blade," said Tenzo, his entire character definitively stoic.

"Slice deep." With the command given to him by his leader, Tenzo stood and walked out of the room while the rest of the root members kneeling down continued to do so in silence showing complete obedience and restraint. They were members of Ne, the organization within ANBU that was not a part of ANBU. In secret they kept the village safe, but their goals, they kept safer, hidden from everyone save for one person.

"Shimura Danzo, how odd. I still don't understand _why_ you need to have the two Yamanakas killed. I wonder, what do their deaths do for your cause?"

Danzo scoffed. He simply opened the scroll before him again and continued to read. "As if you had no idea."

The man's laughter echoed in the ancient room once more, making even some of the root members there tense. The killing intent that dripped from this man's voice was a gaseous toxin; it peeled apart the flesh, devoured the mind, and drank the soul. It smelled of death, and one could see corpses when hearing the shrill laughter coming from deep within his throat.

"Well," he began, smirking as he leaned back into a chair beside Danzo's sensor bodyguard, his hand reaching back and stroking her thigh playfully, though she dared not budge nor react, "… as you have come to finally understand: the boy is anything but_ stupid_," said he, wearing the cloak. His hand slowly traced up her thigh, his finger tips sliding in between her legs, leaving what felt like to her a slimy trail up along her inner thigh as he reached at the junction between her legs.

Speaking casually, the man just watched her body react to his touch as he caressed and _felt_ her. "And since he's already different from other children, all I have to do is take away all of his precious people… make him think that it was-" he paused, as if he was thinking of the word that he needed to string his thoughts together, "-Konoha that killed the person he loves… and then!"

With a decisive tug, he pulled down the back of the woman's shinobi pants, exposing what she wore underneath. His hoarse laughter broke through as he watched the "tool" slowly, futilely look towards her master with hidden eyes that asked if he was really going to just stand there and do nothing. She closed her eyes, knowing no one would see her pain with the mask she wore as she felt the man reaching into her, taking away something she couldn't take back, and knowing she couldn't even speak a word against him. As a strong kunoichi, she never, even being a kunoichi or being in an organization such as root, had expected something like this to happen.

Looking away from the woman for a second, the head of ANBU looked as if he were staring past something in the room, something beyond Konoha. He was seeing something special. "He'll become the perfect underling… someone strong minded, strong willed, and loyal to me; the man who will bring him vengeance for the death of his comrades and his crush."

Danzo turned to look at the man as he pulled off his mask with the other hand not currently occupying itself, revealing his face to him. "He'll gladly become the spearhead, leading my army to Konoha's destruction. He'll be the first one to light his torch and the last one to leave… watching in ecstasy as it _**burns to the ground**_."

"And a new, stronger village… no, a_ city_… shall arise from its ashes," said Danzo, looking coldly into the yellow eyes of the serpent, which smiled a leathery smile.

"We shall see," he replied, turning to and smirking at the woman wearing the ANBU mask. "I'm going to borrow this one. You have my word that I'll treat her like a porcelain doll; I'll be so gentle a feather with a silk spine couldn't caress any softer." With that said, he felt the involuntary shudder that rolled down from just above her shoulders and reverberated all of the way past his hand down towards her toes.

Danzo simply turned back to his scroll, not answering the man as he placed his mask back on. He walked his claimed prize out of the room in front of him, whispering in her ear all of the way, making her wish Danzo would just order her to kill herself to avoid bedding the demon trailing her, as he spoke of the terrible things that he was going to do to her body, and how not even her mind was safe from his touch.

* * *

><p>In K-city, Ino, her father and Tenzo walked quietly outside of the city limits as they headed back to Konoha. Ino smiled brightly, so happy that Naruto had given her the concealed blade which she was now wearing and had gotten quite used to drawing on any given notice. She changed her clothes in a bathroom in the shopping center before they left; she now wore her shinobi outfit as she usually did. The one thing on her mind was the handsome young man who she knew would overcome the prophetic dreams of the daimyo's strange nephew. He would face it head on, she was sure, and he would come back to her one day in the village.<p>

While they were walking, however, Tenzo seemed to enter a strange state of calmness after they got away from Naruto. Something about Naruto had apparently set off some kind of radar in his mind, or maybe Ino was just over thinking things.

"So, Tenzo-san, what is your last name? I don't believe we've ever met, which is quite a surprise, honestly!" Inoichi said, smiling as he extended his arm out to shake the younger man's hand.

"I don't have one."

Inoichi, who still had his hand extended, just blinked as they walked. "Ok, it's a secret then?"

Tenzo shook his head. "No, Tenzo is my code name; I don't possess any names which link me to any particular family line or heritage. It doesn't exist."

Inoichi frowned while Ino just rolled her eyes at his remark. _What a weirdo, _she thought.

"Surely that is a mistake?"

"I can assure you that I am not mistaken."

Inoichi's frown deepened. "I see. Forgive me, it's just that not every day do you meet someone who doesn't know his last name."

Tenzo shook his head. "Forgive _me_; you still do not understand: I was born without a name. I was never given a name. Tenzo is only something you may call me to make you feel better."

_What the hell is going on with this guy? _Ino asked herself, inconspicuously veering slightly away from him while they walked down the road.

Inoichi tried to think, starting to worry that perhaps this was some sort of set up and Tenzo wasn't from Konoha. He felt like he had seen or heard about him only one time before… something about a laboratory survivor… Orochimaru… Inoichi spat when the name entered his brain. What he wouldn't give to never see those yellow eyes again. _Damn monster… he's made my baby's life so hard._

His eyes trailed over the forearm guard which she wore and he smiled.

"You know, your friend was very thoughtful to have gotten you a gift for your guard… I would have never thought of that; he has grown to be a very insightful young man."

_There he goes again, hiding Naruto's name from Tenzo_. Ino slowly turned to look at the man, who seemed to be watching straight ahead, ignoring her eye contact.

"Yeah… it was really thoughtful of him… not only was it nice, but it's functional too. He really thought that gift through."

"It's odd, you know, the first gift that I got for your mother was a bracelet. She wore it every day, kissed me for it too. I was so happy."

Ino chuckled, "You never told me about that!" She stepped closer, walking slightly faster to get a few steps away from Tenzo as she pulled her father forward. "Tell me more about mom. How old was she when she passed away?"

"Baby, she'd kill me if I ever told you her age. She always hated when I bragged about having an older, more experienced girlfriend… and eventually wife."

"Just tell me… she won't get mad if her daughter really wants to know, I'm sure of it."

Inoichi smiled, "I guess she wouldn't be too upset… she was 37. I was 33."

"That's not such a big difference," Ino said, smiling. "She was very beautiful anyways, right?"

"She was definitely pretty. I couldn't believe she liked me as much as she let on. She could have chosen anyone! But, I don't mean she was just beautiful on the outside; your mother's outside paled in comparison to what was here," he pressed his palm to his chest and smiled softly. He remembered fondly the woman he fell in love with when he was a teenager.

"And the age thing was really bad at first. I just turned sixteen when I met her and she was twenty…"

Ino laughed. "So she was robbing the cradle then?"

"Hah, I was the one doing the robbing, even if she was the one who got near the cradle."

Ino smirked, arching a brow. "You sound so sure of yourself dad; I don't know, I'm not sure I believe you were all suave or "debonair" or something. It really would be me taking a leap of faith to believe that one."

Inoichi chuckled, "Hey, now give your old man some credit. He's got some moves, ya know? No less than the ones Naruto has, I'm sure."

A sudden sense of dread crossed the two as they turned to look at Tenzo. He stopped and looked at them when they stopped, then arched a brow and kept walking, passing them. It was getting dark.

"We should hurry and make camp." He said, walking into a clearing surrounded by a dense forest and slapped his palms together. Suddenly, chakra exploded out of his tenketsu as he crouched into his stance before he used his wood release.

Ino and her father watched in awe as a cabin appeared before their eyes, a chimney, paper windows and an empty sauna directly beside it as well. He smiled at the two of them, brushing sweat off of his brow and chuckling once. "That was exhausting. Alright then! Why don't you two take a look-see and tell me how you like my handi-work?" Tenzo asked, smiling emotionlessly at Inoichi, who smiled awkwardly back.

"Oh, uh, sure… coming, Ino?"

Ino grinned, "Yup!"

They both walked up to the door and Inoichi opened it, looking inside and noticed that although he spared no detail outside, the inside was barren. No chairs, no rooms, just a big open space. He looked at his daughter and then back into the room and set a palm down on her shoulder.

Tenzo watched him carefully as he stood at the door, letting his hand fall near his kunai pouch as he waited for the older man's reaction.

"Huh, there's nothing really in here, is there? Aren't there even any rooms?"

"I figured we could start a fire and just roll out our sleeping bags. It's not like I could make beds or anything out of wood…" he said, disarmingly.

Inoichi nodded, looking down towards the floor. "Yeah… that would be pretty impressive though... Now I remember who you are… you're that boy that they found had been implanted with the first's cells… Hashirama's cells allow you to use these wood release jutsu, don't they?" He eyed a small stone sitting just outside of the door and kicked it. Tenzo's eyes widened slightly, and he quickly reached into his kunai pouch and shuriken holster at the same time to catch them unawares.

Ino watched as the stone spun forwards in the air. It spun and spun, and finally landed on the hardwood floor, making a sharp thud as it hit the ground.

"Dad, why'd you…"

Ino gasped when he grabbed her by her shoulders and dragged her down to the floor, dodging the kunai and throwing stars that were aimed for the back of their skulls. They watched as the hardwood floor fell apart into clean-cut squares and the protruded spikes below them appeared as the boards fell into the spaces between them.

"Daddy?" Ino asked, her eyes wide as she saw what it was they were just about to step into. An image of the both of them skewered into the long spikes soaked into her brain. Her eyes peered up as another thud sounded on the frame of the door, barely missing them, and she saw there were kunai and shuriken there.

It happened so quickly, Ino didn't even have time to react.

Inoichi gasped as blood spurted out of his mouth, spraying the man who just stabbed him in the gut with his curved kunai. Ino shook as she watched the monster stab her father over and over in the gut, trying to get the blond man to let go of his arm.

"Release me!"

Inoichi laughed, "Fat chance."

Agitated, Tenzo kneed her father in the kidney, but the blond simply gripped on tighter.

"Ino," her father gasped.

Ino didn't quite hear him. She just heard the blood dripping onto the floor in front of her as she watched the two shinobi struggling against one another's strength.

"**Ino!**" he exclaimed, shocking her out of her reverie.

"Da-"

"_Run_ Ino. You need to leave, _now._ Do not go back to Konoha… he was sent from there… they wanted us dead for some reason… it probably has to do with Naruto."

"Naruto? Why would it have anything to do with him?" Ino asked, still shaking. Suddenly, her eyes opened and the scared little girl disappeared. Without hesitation, she rushed the man whom her father gripped onto tight and flicked her wrist, intending to stab at his throat with the blade that Naruto gave her. At his suggestion, she had switched the blade to the metal one, not sure if the obsidian one was a good choice either. When it sunk into the man's neck, the last thing she expected was for his neck to be made out of oak wood. Her eyes widened when she realized that he had guarded himself at the last second and his technique was slowly spreading throughout his body towards her father's hands.

She tried to pull the blade out of his throat, but it just stayed jammed in the wood, so she detached it by pressing on the switch which she had used to change it in the first place.

"Ino, don't be stupid! He is ANBU, a special-forces shinobi. You don't have a chance… now look at me, you asshole," Inoichi growled, glaring at the man in front of him as he spoke, "Just because I'm a jonin doesn't mean I'm not a threat. Did your leader really think that it was a good idea to send _just one_ of you out to get us? It'll take at least three of you to take me down on a bad day!"

Ino almost laughed at how cocky her father was, but she held it in with a gulp as the man continued to grow his oak flesh. "It will only take me. And I will kill both of you."

Inoichi looked back at Ino and shook his head, "Darling, I love you very much… now go! _**Now!**_"

"No!" Ino cried out, but suddenly the man broke free and kicked her father far away. He turned to her and quickly broke the distance between them, striking at her with an extension of his skin which became a blade made out of wood.

Ino ducked underneath his swipes, dodged left and right past his stabs and even jumped up into the air and kicked him in the chest sending him back when he lunged at her.

To her surprise, however, he quickly rebounded and moved into a spinning backwards fist, smacking her left shoulder fiercely with his knuckles and then leaning into the movement by bending one leg and elbowing her in the gut and following through with a double-handed thrust that threw her off of her feet onto her back.

Ino let the momentum he gave her carry her and rolled back onto her feet, only to have to begin dodging anew as he continued to strike at her with his bladed arm.

Inoichi suddenly struck from behind though, elbowing him in the back of the head and sending him barreling forwards past Ino as she dodged to the side, reaching into her kunai pouch for the obsidian blade to quickly try and attach it to her fore-guard. She watched as her father fought him back, throwing kunai and having him block it easily with his wood release defensive and offensive techniques, something special which only the Shodai Hokage had been able to do long ago.

"You may as well give up. I am far stronger than either of you." Tenzo began forming several seals, standing far away as he erected a pillar using his wood release jutsu.

"That may be… but what are you fighting for? Why are you fighting us? Because someone ordered you? _No one __**ever**_ has to order to me to protect my daughter; I will, no matter what."

Inoichi clenched his fists, forming his own seals as he watched seedlings grow into man-sized trees before reshaping themselves into exact copies of their would-be assassin. The blond didn't like what he was up against, and neither did his young daughter who realized quickly that each of these clones were real and able to do damage as all of them, over twenty, began attacking at once.

Ino stepped forwards and kicked straight up, catching one of the clones with the heel of her foot and snapping his neck cleanly back. Tenzo watched her alternate her legs and use her body as a fulcrum to spin her other heel around into a deadly spinning kick that knocked the next clone onto its ass.

Her father, similarly impressive, rolled backwards to dodge a kunai attack and then lunged forwards and shared an intimate embrace with two clones' faces using his knees. He landed and quickly dodged several cheap shots, even forcing one clone to punch another before he caught one that overreached and flipped him flat onto his back.

Ino finally attached the blade and flicked her wrist twice to make sure it was on securely. She then jumped up into the air and thrust her palm into the face of one of the clones, forcing the blade into his throat and finding that it cleanly sliced through the oak that made up his flesh. She spun around after retracting her blade and stabbed another, then kicked backwards to deflect a sneak attack.

Tenzo looked on in disbelief at how easily their oak flesh was pierced by the girl's blade. He looked at Inoichi who, even after being stabbed several times, was having no trouble trouncing his clones, so he, now sure that he would have to intervene, began running towards the blond man to finish the job.

"Yamanaka!" Tenzo called out, stabbing at the man again with his kunai though he was sure the man would be able to deflect it since he saw it coming.

Ino looked up after lopping off the heads of another clone. She noticed that curved blade again, "Dad! What the hell!? Dad!"

Inoichi smirked and turned to look at his girl, "Baby… I'll stall him… run."

Ino's eyes widened when he held his hands out in the Yamanaka seal and caught Tenzo's mind.

"Oh shit…"

She faintly remembered him telling her about her grandfather's last ditch effort to save a comrade… it resulted in his death, but he spared another man's life. It was a bad trade, he said he once thought, but he said he had come to terms with what his father had done and said that everyone could learn from his selflessness, even if he did deprive his own son of a father and his wife of a husband.

"Dad…" Ino closed her eyes, tears flowing past her squeezed eyelids.

"Huh, I guess he didn't account for us?" Ino's eyes shot open and she quickly brought up her fore-guard to deflect an incoming swipe of a kunai.

"What the hell?"

"Ino, listen… even clones like these… they can only go so far before becoming useless… they're not real shadow clones and so they don't have their own chakra systems… so you just need to run away from them and eventually he'll run out of chakra here waiting for me to bleed out. It shouldn't take too long…"

Ino noticed that there were still several clones, and even the ones that she had 'killed' were beginning to get back up. "Dad… I don't want to…"

Through gritted teeth, Inoichi yelled, "Go to him, Ino!"

Ino's eyes widened slightly and suddenly she wanted to do nothing more than to just _run_.

"Tell him what happened here… tell him that someone has betrayed the Hokage. Don't die here and turn him against his own home!"

Ino didn't quite understand it, but she wondered if what he was saying somehow had something to do with what he knew about Naruto's psyche.

"Ok, dad…" Ino looked around as the clones began nearing closer.

"Listen… don't make me a grandfather so quickly, alright? Live your life first, darling. Promise me that?"

Ino blushed, "I promise."

He smiled, and there were tears in his eyes.

"Good bye, pumpkin." This was the last she heard from her father as he began to focus all of his chakra on forcing Tenzo's chakra into the jutsu.

Ino ran just as the clones began throwing kunai. She gasped when one embedded itself in her shoulder and bit back the pain as she closed her eyes for a second. When she opened them, she jumped up into the trees and made a bee line for Kumamoto City.

After a while, Ino stopped and waited for them to come. She had lost too much blood already and couldn't quite keep her wits about her while standing there just outside of the city limits. She wasn't sure how far the clones could go, but they seemed to slow down about two miles back. Looking at her wound, she tentatively touched the knife sticking out of the back of her shoulder and shook her head from the throbbing pain.

Ino then clasped the handle and yanked once and fell unconscious quickly afterwards. As she lay there, three people heading west away from the sea had just arrived in the outskirts of Kumamoto.

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><p>"Naruto! Who are you talking to?!" Young Minato asked as he climbed up the large mountain with the help of Tayuya, holding the small doll that his mother had given to him before her death, while Anko stood directly beside Naruto trying to shake him out of his apparent stupor.<p>

"Naruto! What are you saying all that for? There's no one up here!" Anko yelled, a little frightened that he seemed so insistent that he was speaking to someone on top of the volcano for the past five minutes.

**So have you made your decision? I cannot wait here all day, Namikaze. I may have waited for years already, but I can wait no longer. Either you do it, or you don't.**

Naruto clenched his jaw, then looked back and young Minato, Tayuya and then turned to Anko. "You three need to leave."

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><p>Ino sat upright in her bed, shuddering as she remembered the vivid dream of Naruto looking down at her from on top of the volcano… wait, does that mean that she became Mount Krakatoa?<p>

Ino looked around and reached for her kunai pouch, but froze like ice when she saw a giant, glimmering blade descend upon her and her neck was nearly surrounded by the giant "cleaving" head-cutter that was held over her. "Holy shit."

"You'll stay put while Haku is away. I don't have time for bullshit, lady."

Ino looked at the bandaged man who had his mouth covered and had a terribly scrunched up brow as if he were very angry at something.

"Ok, ok. That's cool, wait for Haku… but uh, please… take away that sword? Jeez, how long can you hold it straight like that?"

The man laughed, shaking his head. "I don't know, should we find out?"

Ino paled, "Definitely not!"

"Yo, yo, just relax Zabusa-sama!" Chojuro said, smirking when he saw the blonde. "She's pretty… it'll be a shame if your shoulder gets tired and you accidently chop that pretty head off her neck."

"Wow. You're a just a dashing prince, aren't you?"

The blue-haired young man shrugged, "Eh, I don't like to run very fast."

Zabusa smirked and pulled back away the cleaver, leaning back in his chair as he looked at the young blonde. "Chicken legs here probably could teach you a thing or two… she obviously was running from something when we found her."

Chojuro and Ino both looked at him, while Chojuro asked, "How'd you know?"

Zabusa rolled his eyes, "Besides the fact that she was passed out due to a shoulder wound that could've been addressed by any _prepared _shinobi? The trail of blood that was coming from the south where she obviously ran from… an elephant couldn't have left a bigger trail.

"So…," Ino began, trying to jump into the conversation to find out just what the hell she was doing in a bed with a man pointing a giant sword at her, "you two saved me?"

Zabusa laughed and Chojuro just snicked. "Oh hell no, he'd never save you… I might, but I would want a favor in return. You're lucky it wasn't me that found you."

"I sincerely doubt you would guilt her into doing anything she didn't want to do with you, Cho-kun. You have too big of a heart."

Ino's ears perked up while Chojuro put on a big grin and said, "Hey! Haku! Welcome back. Did you find whatever it was you were looking for?"

"Why yes, I did." Ino caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a beautiful young woman and her jaw dropped. "Why, hello there! You're awake then? Are you feeling any better?"

Ino couldn't talk for a moment, finding that her mouth was dry. She blinked and looked at Cho-kun, figuring that he was the boyfriend, then at Zabusa and… it took her a minute… but he must be the… uncle… -ish? Ino shook her head and turned back to look at Haku.

"I uh…"

"It's okay… actually, you should just lie back and rest for a little bit… you don't know how bad these type of wounds can get if you don't clean and disinfect them as soon as possible! Cho-kun, hand me my pestle and a bowl please."

Chojuro looked around and found the two things and handed them over. They were both made out of a good quality red oak. Ino watched as the young woman sliced open a prickly plant and used the knife to scrape out the gooey, viscous insides onto the bowl where she took a choice leaves and a root from a plant that Ino knew as a tack-fern, an odd, fern-like plant that was seedless and when its root was ingested was dangerously poisonous, but when ground up in small amounts and mixed with water was diluted enough to be a great pain-numbing balm that Ino had to guess Haku was going to use on her wound which hurt like hell.

Haku poured a small amount of water into the mixture and ground it up, stirring it and then using her pinky nail to taste it, much to Ino's shock since she knew the root could easily kill someone if they weren't careful when using it for medicine.

"Okay. Perfect. It might sting at first because of the devil egg, but it'll feel good after a few moments if you can just tough it out, ok?"

Ino looked at Haku and nodded. "Ok…"

She didn't know what to say as she felt her shoulder grow numb and the pain that had begun to throb and give her a sharp headache began to fade. Her eyes closed and she barely heard the question coming at her as she started to drift away.

"Can you tell us why you were out there on your own? Where are you headed?"

Ino blinked when Haku repeated the question and nodded. "I ran away. I was going to Mount Krakatoa."

Haku frowned, "You were going the wrong way though… but you said you ran away? From what?"

Ino turned to look away, "From… it's not really important right now…"

Zabusa leaned forwards, "I think you owe it to us to at least be square with us. Don't piss me off, girly."

Haku frowned, "Zabusa-san, that's not nice."

"Don't get me started on what _not nice_ is. I'll get really freakin' _not nice_ in a few minutes if I have to keep putting up with this shit… when are you going to just pass someone by and let them go ahead and die? Maybe she was running away from loan sharks or maybe she's some kind of baby killer or something? Worse yet, what if she's a dumb brat who can't stand her parents anymore and so just ran away from home and got mugged?"

Chojuro looked at him, dumbfounded, "Baby killing is not as bad as being a dumb brat and running from home?"

Zabusa shrugged. "What I'm saying is, if it's not interesting, then it's not worth my time."

"I can't let someone suffering just lie there and die when I know I can help them..." Haku turned back to look at Ino and smiled softly. "Look, miss, you don't have to say anything or even be grateful. You don't owe me anything, ok?"

Zabusa looked at Haku, slack-jawed, "Are you freakin' serious? What if she's rich? Hell yes she owes you _something!_ Hell, a blow job might do you some good."

Ino looked up at Haku and asked, quietly, "You're not a girl…?"

Zabusa and Chojuro looked at Ino and then each other and they broke out into fits of laughter, each shaking their heads or guffawing in their own way.

Haku sighed. "No, I'm a guy."

Ino just stared a moment until something seemed to click. "Oh, well shit. That somehow makes this feeling worse..."

Haku tilted his head, "Huh? What feeling?"

"Envy..."

Zabusa and Chojuro began laughing again.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Next chapter is the end of this 'arc' I suppose. Naruto, Ino and co. all have something to do with it. Your _other _favorite character makes another appearance as well. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.


	25. Chapter 25: The Skin You're In

Something to keep in mind before you begin this chapter, the scene where young Minato was calling out to Naruto right before Ino woke up from her dream was just that: a dream. It hasn't happened yet.

This chapter came at a hard time for me right now and I've been trying to keep writing, but I have to focus on so many other things that it's almost impossible for me to find any more time to write. I will not stop, but my updates will take much longer as you have probably noticed. I'm very sorry for all of you who are waiting for me to update it, and thank you for being patient with me.

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><p><strong>Chapter 25<strong>

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><p>"Thank you <em>so much <em>for the food! It's _ssso-o-o g-oo-oo-ood!_"

Ino nearly moaned at the warm sensation she felt from sipping the stew that Chojuro gave her. It was a tomato-rich mixture with sautéed onions, peppers and salted eggplant, all of which were grown locally in Hi no Kuni. They were thrown into the pot altogether with spices and even a touch of vinegar, a culinary insight that only well-travelled ninja would bother with. She knew as much, she had gotten so used to eating rations and taking Akimichi pills that helped curb hunger while on long missions that she often times forgot how nice it was to enjoy a well-prepared meal. She loved the stew, but she did refuse the rabbit meat that Zabuza was persuaded to offer her, her refusal in turn increasing his general aversion directed at the initially mysterious girl.

They talked for a few minutes while they ate, mostly about what she was running from. What she was doing in Kumamoto in the first place was the first thing that they asked after she spoke about the incident leading up to her father's apparent demise. Zabuza was the one most interested in this, knowing well the wiles of cunning kunoichi and how they often caught foolish or desperate shinobi in their trap, like a spider spinning its web to catch a fly. He also knew that a kunoichi's age was hardly ever a factor; whether it is a young girl who seduces a man into thinking that she's harmless or of no consequence, or a bodily woman who uses her experience, cunning and willingness to do what it takes to catch the meal.

Ino gave them her full name. She talked about her father who she lost in a battle against an assassin. She talked about his bravery, how he held back the assassin, too powerful to kill, so that she could get away from the battle. She didn't tell them that her father believed that her Kage had been betrayed, or that her boyfriend may have been the cause of her last and only living parent's death. She had to talk. She had to say something to someone. She didn't quite understand it, but it made the whole ordeal easier to deal with.

Ino tried to remember her father as best she could, lest she forget him like she did her mother. She didn't cry, though she couldn't quite understand why. She knew he had no chance. He did what he did to ensure that she could get away, and not risk it all including her well-being on an attempt to save his own life.

They sat by the campfire for a while, but once Ino was strong enough to move about again, she set her bowl down, thanked Haku, and stood up and began to walk away.

Zabuza smirked, quite happy with the decision she made. He leaned back in his traveler's cot and closed his eyes, his hands swooping back behind his head to prop it up as he relaxed.

Haku smiled softly, his brow knitting close together to form a troubled look. Chojuro just looked at Haku briefly before shaking his head and standing up. To his companions' collective surprise, he chased after the girl and grabbed her by her arm, asking her to stop. When he did, however, he was unexpectedly met with a cold gaze and an even colder blade that looked as if it were made out of ink or tar. Not sure what it was, Chojuro eyed the wrist blade that shot out of her bracer with the simple flick of her wrist. It was dangerously sharp, he was sure, and although he had never seen anything like it, it wasn't the sword that struck fear within him; it was the way her eyes looked at him like he was already dead.

The breath he didn't know he was holding escaped his lungs as her killing intent subsided. As a sword enthusiast and wielder, he undoubtedly was interested in the blade's make. He had the nagging suspicion that the blade was carved by some of the tribesmen who lived at the far northern borders between the shinobi enforced countries of Rice, Fire and Waterfall, but he shelved away that question for a better time.

"Uh… listen to me for a sec. I just wanted to know if you were still going to Krakatoa… cause if you are, we're not going there, but I can go with you… just in case that assassin comes back to finish…" he trailed off, biting his lip as her look became progressively colder and colder. "I mean… I just want to help. I can always come back to Kumamoto after I've escorted you there."

"So can I! Please allow me to accompany you, my friend!" Haku offered with his eyes steely and his lips curved upwards in a pleasant smile.

Zabuza groaned, muttering _why me_ as he lay on his back, not even bothering to open his eyes. He knew he was going; once Haku had some sort of honorable intention set in his heart it was like he chiseled it on there and the impression could never be removed. He was going to have to tag along to make sure the kid didn't get hurt skirt-chasing.

Images of the man who undoubtedly took her father's life flashed before her. It took all of her power not to follow-through with the poised blade and thrust it directly through the boy's skull. She had no doubts that it could after seeing the way it sliced through the wooden clones as if they were made out of paper instead.

Ino's heart was pounding, causing her to shudder as it ran rampantly inside of her chest. She was shaking like a leaf… everywhere except the arm that held the blade pointed directly in between the blue-haired man's eyes. That arm held the blade so still that Chojuro knew that one wrong move or haggard breath would mean some permanent damage. What neither of them knew was that the blade was more than it seemed; a soft humming sound resounded from the shadowy blade as if it were vibrating with anticipation at the kill.

Ino pulled the blade back and flicked her wrist again to sheathe it. She sighed right before a deep roll of air entered her stressed lungs.

"I see," she said. "Well, I would really appreciate the company, but I don't know if I even want to get you all involved… you're such nice people… and the problems I have are bigger than assassins coming after me," Ino spoke with an air of introspection, as if she were not even talking to anyone other than reconfirming something with herself. Her eyes wouldn't even rise to meet Chojuro's or anyone else's.

Haku stepped forward, speaking, "From time to time, we also have hunter-nin chasing us from our home village. We fight them off every time but honestly it is much safer in numbers. Had I been on my own all of this time, I would have never survived some of the more dastardly attempts on my life… Zabuza-san has saved me countless times."

They heard a grunt of annoyance coming from the fireplace where Zabuza sat. "Don't sell yourself short, Haku. You know damn well that you've covered my neck just as many times as I've watched out for yours."

Haku smiled, "Thank you, Zabuza-san," he said, feeling a little warmer even though his friend's tone of voice made him seem flippant and uncaring. He knew how important he had become to his friend; their time together had showed him just that: that he was no longer a tool, but a friend. "It really makes me happy to hear you say that."

Zabuza just grunted again, still reclining back on his thin camping bed. "Shut up with all that." He muttered, but his eyes opened and he peered into the fire for a moment before closing them again.

"So," Haku began, turning back to Ino who eyed him carefully in the waning light of the sun. "What are the problems you have other than contracted assassins?"

Ino turned back to look at them and searched both Haku and Chojuro for any hint of malice, she looked carefully for that inner reflection she thought and hoped she was trained well to see as a kunoichi. She bit her lip, mauling over the jumbled set of words in her brain as she tried to come out with a clear and precise explanation for what she believed was going on.

"I guess… I should tell you a little bit about it so that you can understand my predicament." Ino said, a little too quietly. She felt every fiber of her being shuddering, almost begging for her to not place her trust in these people regardless of how nice they were. She had already sized up all three of them, and knew that each of them was a skilled shinobi and would be of great help to her if she were to run into Tenzo again.

The odd thing was that it seemed like they were all from Mizu; the clothing was a similar style to the set that she saw Naruto wearing once, and although Haku wasn't wearing a shinobi headband, he had needles set in his long, pretty hair to tie the bulk of it back behind his head; needles were often thought of as a very Mizu-esque style or even tradition, as they were hard to detect within the obscuring mist that they had become famous for. Zabuza wore his headband, but it was tied onto his head at an off angle and with the headband against the side of his head instead of his front. As she reassessed the two shinobi, she realized something about their story didn't quite add up.

"You said you have to fend off hunter-nin? So you three are missing nin?"

Chojuro grinned, "I'm not. These two are pretty famous though, actually."

Zabuza smirked, "So we're celebrities then?"

"Hah, you have some renown alright… the _Demon of the Bloody Mist_."

Haku shook his head, chuckling. "That one will never, ever leave you. It is so striking… also quite scary."

"I plan on keeping it that way," he remarked.

Ino frowned. "So… ok, with the exception of Cho-kun because he's not one and Haku because he isn't wearing his, why is it that your forehead protector doesn't have a scratch through them like most missing nin?"

One of Zabuza's eyes opened as he looked up at the blonde with an iris made of smoky ice. Haku, looking conflicted and somewhat ashamed, bowed his head and tried to avoid the young girl's gaze.

"You know that the line carved through the hitai'ate has nothing to do with a person leaving a village; it is simply a statement against that village, and what the person who left believes in."

"Ok. Sorry for saying this, but you strike me as the type of person to hold a grudge… yet you don't have the line through it… so you're saying you believe in what Mist stands for?"

"Smart girl. I am all for the village; what I wasn't for was its government... hell; a few years ago I thought I could do better, but now I know that politics just isn't for me. That doesn't take away from the fact that I worked hard for that village for most of my life, even as a kid before I entered their shinobi academy. There's more to it than my own personal issues though. You see… Haku here was never a shinobi of the Mist… he was born a villager with a problem that you don't hear about back in Konoha."

Ino narrowed her eyes. "I never said I was from Konoha." She certainly wasn't wearing her hitai'ate. It was hidden away in her kunai pouch. She reflexively reached for her pouch, but realized she had the blade at her wrist and was all too happy to prepare to use that on him if it turned out their kindness had all been an illusion.

Zabuza closed his eye and eased back into his cot, the intense feeling that radiated off of him went away and he shrugged. "You're a Yamanaka. You told us your last name, remember? All Yamanaka shinobi are from Konoha. Any Yamanaka shinobi not living in Konoha are marked as missing nin, traitors, or are retired and have to report periodically back to the village… I am not too sure, but I think that they also must only establish residency within particular regions throughout the country. It's the same for the Inuzuka. Otherwise, they must not enter a shinobi academy or be caught learning ninjutsu. It's a part of both of their family's politics, and so they adhere to it, even though the agreement made between the Daimyo of the time and the village during its founding is no longer binding. To their families though, if you aren't living in Konoha, then you cannot become a shinobi. Has to do with their old ancestry in the village… and their relationship to the Uchiha living… well… they used to live there anyways. Lately I have heard many rumors about the two remaining boys and what has become of them. It's both sad and scary, depending on which of the two Uchiha brothers you're talking about."

Ino looked at the older man, shocked at the knowledge he possessed. She thought briefly about Sasuke, seeing him sitting in his wheelchair at a table, working on sealing scrolls, and wondered in her mind what he was up to while she was out here in all of this craziness. "I heard a few things about that… But the political aspect of our clan was the reason why only my father and a few of my other family members stayed. Everyone else moved on… I swear it's weird… anyways, how do you know so much?" she asked, watching the other two carefully as if they had just sprouted heads like snakes.

"I had some intensive training as an ANBU operative in Mizu… Even with all of the super-powered jutsu nowadays, information is still and will always be the deadliest tool a shinobi carries with him, and the information that was drilled into my head was exhaustive: most of what I know now was far more surprising and significant back then, but there are still a few choice bits of info that I have on Konoha, Suna and a few of the others that they'd likely prefer to keep under wraps, so to speak."

Surprised but now more confident this wasn't a façade, Ino smiled and said, "That's impressive! Ok… could you please continue from where you left off? I am really very sorry that I interrupted you!" Ino walked back over to the pit and knelt down by the fire while Chojuro and Haku sat on either side of her.

"Huh… well, the problem Haku faced was that he was born with a kekkei genkai."

Ino gasped, "Oh wow! Like the Sharingan or some kind of affinity to water or something? That's pretty amazing! You're really lucky."

Haku smiled, albeit awkwardly.

"It's actually the opposite… he was one of the most unlucky boys on the planet; to be born in Mizu, at that time, with an enhanced bloodline? It was a death sentence. Even for a talented boy like him."

Ino turned back to look at Haku who softly returned her shameful gaze with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it… it is quite different in Konoha, as Zabuza-san was saying."

"Right. See, Mizu doesn't have an excuse for what it did to its own people. The village of Konoha and Hi no Kuni as a whole used people with kekkei genkai for a long time before and after both of the shinobi wars, and they didn't participate in the near extermination on their own people over fear. The strength of some of these bloodlines was so powerful though that the government was scared that they would be overturned. The second Mizukage mainly used these people as contract killers to eliminate his enemies or any political obstacles that stood in his way, and when the war was nearly over he was killed by accident in battle by one of his own shinobi. It was conveniently one with a bloodline. The third kage made an announcement calling in all of his _unique _and_ important_ soldiers who won "their war", as they called it. He lined up each of the dedicated shinobi, who stood proudly to receive their reward, and told them that he would thank them one by one."

Haku heard this story before. Zabuza seemed to be going into more detail than the one that he heard a few years ago.

"So, they waited in a large room big enough for their small army, anxious for their final payment as they talked, shared their war tales and tried to return to being humans and not just killing tools. It was called the Grand Hall, and it was obviously newly renovated with paint and other things, including statues of all of the Kage at the peak of their reign. They were all given alcohol to drink and food to eat, and so they drank their booze and ate all they could take… after all, who would suspect one's very own village would try to kill so many of them at one time? No, none of them believed the village they bled and died for capable of such a drastic decision… I'm sure they couldn't fathom it. In fact, I'm sure they thought that the village _needed _them even more now that the war was over to fend off any violent after effects and help take better control of the country…"

Zabuza shook his head. "None of them were ever called to meet with the Mizukage. Each and every one of them that night died in that room. Only a pair of them was left at the end. Neither had anything to eat or drink. The room was locked from the outside. The shinobi present that night weren't aware of Mizu's renovations to the grand hall. It was restructured with an extra layer of basalt to reinforce it and stolen Uzushiogakure seals were used to suppress their chakra so that they couldn't use their abilities to escape."

Chojuro shifted in his seat while Ino covered her mouth, staring on in shock as he told the story of his village.

"One of them died from starvation... the other…" he said with a bitter tone to his voice, "… opted out."

He paused for a few seconds and Ino noticed his eyes were opened as they were staring into the fire. He sat up and pushed another piece of firewood into the hungry flame and turned to look at the pretty blonde.

"He… ate the poisoned food?"

Zabuza's silence spoke for him. After a few seconds, he began again, looking up to the blonde as he spoke.

"There are several reasons why they were once called the Bloody Mist… not just because of the exit exam to their academy. And there are several more reasons why I can't go back, for now."

"I see… that's a… terrifying story. To think that a village… any village could be capable of…" she closed her eyes, whispering a silent hope that they received their payment due to them in the afterlife.

Zabuza looked at the girl and a snarky grin formed behind his white facemask. It wasn't that he was laughing at the girl or thought she was stupid… even Haku knew that he didn't really have a "happy" face. It was the best anyone could ever ask for: a grin that was more like a sneer than anything else.

"So, they clear the bodies and a few of the ones who didn't show up to that large meeting or were still fighting through the end of the war found out that many of their friends, family, comrades and even sometimes lovers had disappeared without a trace; the ANBU made sure of that. The third Kage then used the general public's fear of the powerful shinobi with enhanced bloodlines and, using their fear for his propaganda, made them out to be traitors of the village… like they were going to overthrow everything they knew and love and replace it with a true dictatorship. How they were going to use their superior strength and kill everyone just for the fun of it… how the war had changed the people that they once knew and turned them all into monsters. How their bloodlines made them into these savage, uncontrollable killers; this is what the Kage administration used as propaganda to convince the populace to despise their very own. And so, they were hunted down like the monsters they were. Like dogs; vermin. The superior numbers of the shinobi without kekkei genkai outmatched the superior quality of most of their prey. Only a select few survived and most of those were people who hid as normal villagers in remote parts of the country. Or those that left the country altogether and defected."

Wrapped up in the story, the three young shinobi listened to the often intense and doubly-so tragic history of the Village Hidden in the Mist. Ino had only known a few choice things about Mizu, so all of this information was very enlightening. She began to realize just how unlucky Haku was to be born in the wrong place at the wrong time, and her: the complete opposite.

"Haku's mother hid within the Land of Water. She probably didn't have the resources to get out of the village at the time and so decided to settle down in a peaceful location. I do not know if she was a shinobi, but she hid the fact that she was a carrier of an enhanced bloodline for quite some time. In a small, peaceful town, far away from Mizu, she married and gave her husband a son. Haku soon found out that he had this power to manipulate water… easily, and without having to use any seals or jutsu to gather the chakra necessary for it…" Zabuza stopped abruptly and turned to look at Haku. "Do you want to tell the rest?" he asked.

Haku shook his head, "No, I'm fine if you do it. I know you memorized it even though I only told you once."

"It's an important trait for a shinobi to have a good memory. Remembering not to overlook even the slightest detail can mean life or death in our world… so," he says, continuing, "Haku showed off his ability to his mother, who slapped him out of the frustration that she felt over the curse of what once was considered an "ability" and not a smear on the face of society… She reached for him and held him, hoping they would be able to hide it away and that the love she shared with her husband would overcome this obstacle… Haku's father, however, saw the entire exchange and met the two of them at home with a small militia accompanying him. He killed Haku's mother… but it wasn't so easy to kill Haku."

Zabuza sighed. "Afterwards, Haku was homeless and I ran into him. I saw potential, but what was most important at the time was that he was alone, lost in more ways than one and desperate to find some purpose in his life. His youth and impressionability made it easy for me to make a weapon out of him. We went through so many tough obstacles together, and sometime in between we became real comrades."

Ino wiped the edge of her eye with her wrist, sniffling. "I'm so sorry you lost your parents that way." She reached for Haku, surprising him as she brought him in close for a hug.

Chojuro smirked and leaned forward on his palm as he planted his elbow down on his knee.

"Hey, where's my hug? I never even had parents."

Ino's eyebrows rose high above her eyes. "Wow, now that you mention it, there must be so many orphans in Mizu after all of that." She then reached over and pulled Chojuro in for a hug, which he gladly returned.

"Yep," Zabuza said, chuckling. "That's what we are, _the_ _land of bastards_."

Chojuro chuckled and Haku just smiled at the cruelly truthful joke.

Ino turned to look at Chojuro, once again rubbing a tear out of her eye. "So, Cho-kun. What about you? What's your story?"

"Mine's not so heart-wrenching, unfortunately. I grew up in Mizu an orphan, went into the shinobi academy thankfully after Zabuza had left… he changed the entire system by killing all of the graduating kids in his class."

Ino reeled back in shock, looking at the beady-eyed man who just gazed back at her. Nodding slowly she turned to look back at Chojuro, giving him all of her attention.

"I grew up wanting to be one of the seven swordsmen of the Mist, just like him. It was hard, but I finally got my own sword." He grinned over at Zabuza and Haku, while either nodded or smiled, acknowledging him. "I worked hard for my village and now I'm trying to find a friend of mine who got caught up in some bad stuff. I only have another week or so before I'm considered a missing nin… so I have to get a hold of him quickly and try and bring him back home."

Ino laughed. "I was trying to do something similar… funny how my boyfriend just left Mizu recently."

Zabuza tried not to snicker when he saw Chojuro's heart fall down into his stomach. He looked over at Haku who didn't show any indication that it bothered him, other than his ears were starting to blush red.

"Oh, you have a boyfriend?" Chojuro said, not even able to conceal the disappointment he felt at hearing that.

"Yeah. Well… in all honesty, we are together, but I don't think we've officially said… oh, that's so silly."

Zabuza arched a brow, "What does it matter if he's your boyfriend or just a guy you're sleeping with?"

Ino flinched, "Whoa, buddy!" She put her knuckles on her hips and glared at him, "Don't think that just because I suddenly have respect for you that you can just go and talk like that about me. You don't know if I've slept with him or not, so why don't you watch what you say before you say it!"

Chojuro's eyes widened and his heart fluttered back up from his stomach to his chest. _If they're not official, then…!_

Zabuza rolled his eyes, more so at the revitalized look in both of the boys sitting around the fire. "Well, you didn't answer my question."

Ino gave him a sideways look like she was glaring, but there was a hint of playfulness in her eyes that made Chojuro sigh. "Alright… what makes it important to me is his feelings for me. If he clearly says that he wants to be my boyfriend then that means he wants to be exclusive."

"What about cheating? Just because he's you're boyfriend doesn't mean he's not going to sleep with other girls or you might do the same with other guys."

Ino frowned. "I like to think there's more to him than that… more to me than that; Naruto is a man not like any other man."

A thought died on the blue haired young man as he looked at the girl, and Chojuro reeled back, his body racking up as if he were plummeting straight down into the ground from high up in the air.

"That's a hell of a statement to make." Zabuza said, chuckling. "But I guess there are better men than me though and Haku is a shining example of that."

Haku would have smiled, but the steeled look in Chojuro's eyes caught his attention. "Chojuro," he started, slowly trying to peer into his eyes as if he was scared of ensnaring his attention even though he needed to talk to him, "Is everything ok?"

Chojuro didn't even look at Haku. His eyes were fixated on Ino's. "You said… Naruto? Namikaze Naruto? Uzumaki Naruto?" He stood upright, his eyes peering down into hers as they had somehow found themselves seated at one point throughout the story.

"Yeah…" Ino said, quietly, her eyes looking up into his before she stood up herself. "Uzumaki Naruto, that's who I meant."

Chojuro nodded. "Naruto is the friend that I'm looking for… I've been searching for him for the past two weeks. I have to bring him back to Mizu or at least get a hold of him before my time is up. May I please go with you?"

Ino nodded. "Ok. But, if you turn out to be anything but a friend," her eyes gripped his and pulled them in close as she whispered, "I won't hesitate to cut out your throat."

"Understood." His eyes danced with hers like two warriors stabbing at each other with spears.

"Let's go." Zabuza said suddenly, brushing past Chojuro and Ino, shocking both of them. Haku's smile widened and a glint of mischievousness reached his eyes. They turned to look at the chiseled man, carved like a monument out of pale stone.

"Did you see that?"

"The aura? It was like… solid. I swore I could see his chakra." Chojuro said, looking on incredulously.

"Uh oh. Zabuza-san is all fired up; it might be hard to stop him now that he's gotten all like this." Haku explained to the two younger shinobi who were frozen in place, their arms up in a protective manner as the man kept walking.

"Did you expect him to do that all of a sudden?" whispered Chojuro, looking cautiously at the blonde in front of him.

"No way… It was like standing next to a… leopard or something equally bloodthirsty." Ino whispered back, her eyes widened.

Haku laughed. "Oh yeah, killing strong opponents and money are Zabuza-san's two biggest motivations… well, there are three actually; revenge is pretty high up there as well…" The boy shrugged, having already cleared up the campsite, he put out the fire and walked past the frozen duo.

Ino made the first move, chasing after the pretty boy to hide behind him as they walked. Chojuro shook it off and followed after them, but soon after had to run back to grab his pack and his sword before he turned back to catch up with them.

* * *

><p>Naruto smiled. Tayuya and Anko were playing with the sticks used in dango treats, fighting each other with them like they were sparring with swords as they sat in the carriage. Naruto wasn't going to arrange for them to go by carriage to the volcano, but young Minato showed up near the outskirts of the village with several bodyguards and a messenger that invited them to join him. He said that his vision placed him there at the volcano, so to not go could possibly warrant his own death, as he had never seen himself in any other vision.<p>

Naruto was sitting across from young Minato who was playing with a doll.

"That's a cute thing. What it's name?" Naruto asked Minato, who grinned up at him.

"His name is Naruto! I just named him!"

The blond laughed, shaking his head. "And you couldn't think of any better name?"

When the young boy shook his head fervently, Naruto suddenly felt touched. He smiled as the young boy played with the young "Naruto" doll which had small whisker marks on its cheeks and had a tuft of blond hair sort of like his.

"So, Minato… your uncle is by Krakatoa, isn't he? What kind of person is he?"

Young Minato nodded but shrugged, saying, "I've never met him."

Surprised, Naruto asked, "What?"

"He always sent servants to take care of me. He gave me a tutor and a place to stay nearby the palace, but he was never really around. Neither was my daddy. The only person I've ever had was my mommy, and a servant or two. I'm pretty lucky though! I heard that there are people without mommies or daddies. Even if I didn't have my mommy, my uncle took care of me by sending those servants to care for me."

"Huh… does your uncle have any kids?"

"They are all grown up."

"Did you ever get to play with any kids your age? Do you have any friends?"

"I had a friend a long time ago. She moved far away though… Her name was Nanao."

"I see. I'm sorry to hear that. I had a really good friend for a long time and we just met up again recently; so maybe you and Nanao will see each other pretty soon… actually, I'm sure of it! I may not have prophetic dreams, but I'm sure you'll meet her again, and you'll become good friends again just like you were before!" Naruto spoke with Ino in his heart, so when he heard the chuckling coming from the young boy across from him in the carriage, he frowned. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing… it's just that, I don't think you and Ino-chan are "good friends"… or maybe, you two are _really_ good friends." He smiled mischievously, "I think you two are boyfriend and girlfriend!"

Anko started laughing while Tayuya just frowned. Naruto blushed. Was it that obvious?

"You're a bright kid!" Anko called out from the other side of the large, mule drawn carriage.

"No kidding." Naruto muttered.

Naruto reached into his kunai pouch and pulled out a small wallet shaped like a frog. He introduced Gama-chan to the small Naruto-doll and began playing with the young boy, drawing awe's from the two women riding with them. Naruto and Minato spent the next hour in the slow-moving carriage just playing with their two "dolls" as Naruto tried his best to give the boy some semblance of a normal childhood while he still could.

* * *

><p>Ino stopped in her tracks as they walked. What she saw in front of her she couldn't comprehend. Afterwards, she couldn't believe what she saw. When she knew it was true, she broke out into tears and ran up to the blond man standing in the center of the clearing, waiting with open arms.<p>

Zabuza and Haku exchanged looks while Chojuro eyed the older man suspiciously. Ino, still crying after a few minutes of holding the tall man, turned to introduce her companions with a red nose and cheeks as she gasped for breaths in between sobs.

How? How was he still alive? Ino gripped onto his sleeves and whimpered into his chest, begging her daddy not to leave her ever again. He spoke very tenderly in her ear begging her for her forgiveness. Ino looked at his chest and realized he was covered in blood. And now she was as well. Her fingertips all of the way up until her throat she was dyed crimson. He was bleeding profusely. Wondering how there was so much blood Ino touched his chest and gasped when he began to fall backwards.

She grasped his shoulders and eased him down gently onto his back, leaning over him as she dug her knees into the soil beside him as he bled out. He looked into her eyes and whispered quietly, totally out of breath.

She couldn't hear him. She leaned in close and tried to catch his last few breaths against her ear, her eyes widening in shock.

"Daddy, what are you talking about? Why would he…?"

She watched him shudder as his eyes began to weave back and forth, his eyelids hanging low.

"Naruto… has betrayed the village… he intends… to join Orochimaru… to kill all of us. Tenzo was one of his. I killed him. Bit his throat."

Ino reeled back, about to let go of her father's head. His face was covered in a darker shade of blood that splashed around it and dripped down his jaw and neck. _How could he be saying such things about the man she loved? Did he really send Tenzo to interrupt their date and make it look like the village wanted her dead? How could he have the resources to get a hold of a jonin from Konoha?_

"Pumpkin… _please_… I know you love him… but he was only toying with you. He intended to join Orochimaru from the start. He said and did what he had to do to trick you into "protecting" him and staging his getaway with the Sannin back when you were children. He wants revenge for something that happened to his parents a long time ago that he found out about. He wasn't supposed to find out what we did to his parents. But he did… Ino. I need you to pay attention to me."

Tears were streaming down Ino's face as she tried to listen to him and make out what her father was saying. What was he saying? That Naruto wanted Orochimaru to take him away from the village? That _he was the one who called him? _What did her father or the village have anything to do with Naruto's parents?

"You have to kill him. If you don't, the village is in danger… he's not strong yet… not strong enough. You and your friends have to finish him before he goes back home and kills everyone."

"Daddy! What are you asking me to do?! I can't… he wouldn't kill anyone!"

Chojuro winced slightly, remembering the ugly way that Naruto often killed anyone who threatened his life… in particular he remembered the gruesome way that Naruto shoved a man into a group of people with a detonated roll of explosive tags in his mouth.

"Sweety… please… Don't trust him. _Don't…_" Yamanaka Inoichi died there.

Ino looked away from the dull, lifeless eyes of her father as she gripped his coat fiercely.

Haku knelt down beside her, but did not speak. He only searched her eyes and reached out with one hand for Ino's. She looked up when he touched her, and her eyes searched his for a moment before she crashed into him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she sobbed, tears running down freely as she smothered the young man in her father's drying blood.

Chojuro looked on towards Krakatoa, which was so magnificently tall that it was visible in the distance. He gripped one of the handles to his sword behind his back as he gazed on with a hint of anger in his eyes. Just what were Naruto's intentions from the very beginning? He wondered now if maybe this entire time, he was Orochimaru's pupil and was using the Mist as a place to train and grow strong. He certainly played his own part in Naruto's development, and to think that his best friend could have used him in such a way made his blood boil.

Zabuza sighed. He looked up to the stars above their heads and hoped that he wasn't making the biggest mistake of his life, following and protecting this girl.

* * *

><p>After burying the body, they went on their way, leaving a small monument of stones and a compilation of sticks in the shapes of both the Yamanaka and Konoha symbols. Ino took her time; she wasn't in a hurry to meet up with Naruto anymore. As they left, however, the stones shifted and from the grave rose a dead man. He smiled a smile unlike any of his own, even as the skin on his face began to peel away.<p>

* * *

><p>I hope it was worth the wait. Unfortunately, I had to extend this part of the story. There will be a few more things tying up at the end, and I will start part two of the story after the meeting at Mount Krakatoa. Like I said, I'm really busy lately, so it may take another while for me to update. I appreciate any reviews and messages you all send me. And thank you very much for reading!<p> 


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